.  BI:;lK>P  BUTLE 


an  z/!.ppre.(:tat.ton 

'With  the  best  '^Passages  of  his 
Writings  selected  find  arranged  by 

tAlexander  JVloyte 


/0.3  .'cif- 


PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^ 


Presented  by^f-o"^,  ."oo  r-, y-'  lOfi,     i  V'VV^TD 35.. 

.      BX  Il99   .B9^~  ^ 
Whyte,  Alexander,  1837-1921, 
Bishop  Butler,  an 
appreciation 


Digitized  by  tlie  Internet  Arcliive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/bisliopbutlerapprOOwliyt 


BISHOP  BUTLER 


BISHOP  BUTLER 

an  appreciation 
with  the  "Best  'Passages  of  his 
Writings  selected  and  ayanged  by 

Jllexander  Whyte 

D.D. 


Fleming  H.  Revel/  Company 

New  York    Chicago  Toronto 
1904 


Edinburgh  :  T.  and  A.  Constable,  Printers  to  His  Majesty 


To  SVLy  Classes 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 


The  Sample  Passages  selected  out  of  Butler  s  W orks  have 
been  indexed  after  Dr.  Angus^s  admirable  edition  of  the 
'  Analogy^  the  '  Dissertations,^  and  the  '  Sermons.^  The 
Religious  Tract  Society  has  done  the  students  of  our  day  an 
immense  service  in  sending  out  Butler  under  such  excellent 
editorship,  and  that,  too,  at  such  a  cheap  price. 


i 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

APPRECIATION   13 

BUTLER'S  BEST  PASSAGES:— 

ON  GOD   91 

ON  THE   LOVE  OF   GOD   95 

ON  SCRIPTUKE   97 

ON   CONSCIENCE   lOO 

ON  REASON   no 

ON   CHARACTER   110 

ON   HABIT   115 

ON   PROBATION   I18 

ON  THE   PASSIONS   131 

ON  MEANS  AND   ENDS  ......  135 

ON  PROBABILITY   I  39 

ON  KNOWLEDGE  .......  141 

ON   OUR  IGNORANCE     ......  I45 

ON   RICHES  ........  148 

ON   CHARITY   153 

ON  HAPPINESS   156 

ON  BENEVOLENCE   159 

ON   ILL-WILL   160 


X  Butler 

PAGI 

ON  PARTY-SPIRIT   l6l 

ON   MISUNDERSTANDING   162 

ON  PEEVISHNESS   1 64 

ON  RESIGNATION   165 

ON  DEVOTION   172 

ON  THE   CHURCH   I75 

ON   PUBLIC   WORSHIP   181 

ON   PASTORAL   CARE    ......  iSj 

ON   PULPIT   CONTROVERSY           ....  185 

ON  THE   STUDY  OF  DIVINITY      .         .  .188 

ON   MISSIONS         .......  189 

ON  READING         .......  19O 

ON   STYLE   191 

ON  TALKATIVENESS   I93 

ON  AMUSEMENTS          ......  198 

ON   CHILDREN      .......  200 

ON  DEATH   202 

ON  THE   FUTURE  LIFE   2O4. 

LETTERS   209 

PRAYERS   221 


APPRECIATION 


APPRECIATION 

Joseph  Butler  had  for  his  contemporaries 
John  Locke,  Isaac  Nev/ton,  George  Berkeley, 
William  Law,  Alexander  Pope,  John  Wesley, 
Jonathan  Edwards,  Samuel  Johnson,  and  many 
other  well-known  men.  The  Principia  was 
published  in  1687,  the  Essay  Concerning  Human 
Understanding  in  1690,  the  Rolls  Sermons  in 
1726,  the  Serious  Call  in  1729,  the  Essay  on 
Man  in  1 733,  the  y^/t-i/'/zrow  in  1733,  the  Analogy 
in  1736,  the  Religious  Affections  in  1746,  the 
Freedom  of  the  Will  in  1754,  the  Dictionary  in 
1755,  Lives  of  the  Poets  in  178  i.  If 

Butler's  lifetime  was  not  the  very  greatest  age 
of  English  literature,  and  philosophy,  and  re- 
ligion, it  v/as  still  a  great  age,  when  these  were 
the  men  whose  names  were  in  every  mouth, 
and  when  these  were  the  books  that  were  in 
every  reader's  hand. 

13 


14  Butler 

Butler  quite  excelled  himself  the  very  first 
time  he  put  pen  to  paper.  He  never  wrote 
anything  again  so  astonishingly  acute  as  was 
the  short  series  of  anonymous  letters  he 
addressed  to  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke  on  certain 
philosophical  and  theological  positions  of  that 
eminent  author.  Butler  tells  us  that  the  Being 
and  the  Nature  of  God  had  been  his  incessant 
study  ever  since  he  began  to  think  at  all. 
And  that  he  had  thought  to  some  purpose  on 
that  supreme  subject  of  thought,  those  able 
letters  of  his  are  the  sufficient  evidence.  "  A 
correspondence,"  says  Professor  Fraser  in  his 
Life  of  Berkeley,  "  unmatched  in  its  kind  in 
English  philosophical  literature."  But  it  is 
not  the  acuteness  of  their  dialectic,  nor  even 
the  depth  of  their  thought,  that  gives  those 
early  letters  of  Butler  their  lasting  interest 
to  us.  It  is  much  more  the  rare  qualities 
of  heart  and  character  that  shine  out  of  every 
page  of  those  modest  letters  that  make 
Butler's  admirers  so  to  cherish  his  early 
correspondence  with  Clarke. 


Appreciation  15 

Butler  has  no  biography.  Butler's  books 
are  his  whole  biography.  What  Jowett  so 
well  says  of  Plato's  writings  may  also  be  said 
of  Butler's  :  "  The  progress  of  his  writings  is 
the  history  of  his  life.  We  have  no  other 
authentic  life  of  him.  His  writings  are  the 
true  self  of  the  philosopher,  stripped  of  the 
accidents  of  time  and  place."  Butler's  school- 
boy letters  to  Clarke  are  the  best  biography  of 
his  boyhood  and  youth,  and  his  Rolls  Sermons 
and  his  Analogy  are  the  sum  and  substance  of 
all  his  after  days.  The  Preface  to  the  second 
edition  of  his  Rolls  Sermons  is,  perhaps,  on  the 
whole,  the  most  self-revealing  and  most  char- 
acteristic piece  of  writing  that  ever  proceeded 
from  Butler's  pen.  "  The  Preface  to  the 
Sermons,''  says  Maurice,  "  is  the  most  impor- 
tant of  all  the  documents  we  possess  for  the 
understanding  of  Butler's  character."  The 
famous  Preface  is  full,  I  will  not  say  of 
contempt,  but  of  a  certain  saddened  scorn  at 
the  generality  of  the  readers  of  his  day. 
Those  are  classical  passages  in  which  he  takes 


i6  Butler 

up  the  defence  of  his  much-assailed  manner  of 
writing  in  his  Rolls  Sermons.  Butler's  really 
noble  style  is  never  seen  to  greater  advantage 
than  just  in  those  two  or  three  pages  in  which 
he  defends  his  Rolls  Sermons.  All  those  men 
among  ourselves  who  would  write  seriously,  as 
v/ell  as  all  those  who  v/ould  read  seriously, 
should  lay  to  heart  those  warm  and  weighty 
pages  of  this  great  writer.  And  then,  after 
his  severe  chastisement  of  the  indolent  and 
incapable  readers  of  his  day,  Butler  passes  on 
to  assist  his  really  serious-minded  readers  by 
preparing  for  them  a  most  masterly  intro- 
duction to  the  fifteen  sermons.  When  the 
famous  Preface  comes  to  a  close  with  this 
valuable  autobiographic  paragraph  :  "  It  may 
be  proper  to  advertise  the  reader  that  he  is  not 
to  look  for  any  particular  reason  for  the  choice 
of  the  greatest  part  of  these  discourses  ;  their 
being  taken  from  amongst  many  others 
preached  in  the  same  place,  through  a  course 
of  eight  years,  being  in  a  great  measure 
accidental.    Neither  is  he  to  expect  any  other 


Appreciation 

connection  between  them  than  that  uniformity 
of  thought  and  design  which  will  always  be 
found  in  the  writings  of  the  same  person  when 
he  writes  with  simplicity  and  in  earnest." 
With  these  simple  and  earnest  words  Butler 
winds  up  a  piece  of  composition  so  charac- 
teristic of  him,  that  we  would  not  have  wanted 
it  for  anything.  Butler  writes  by  far  his 
best,  so  far  as  style  is  concerned,  when  he  is 
smarting  under  a  sense  of  injury.  His  resent- 
ment makes  him  strike  with  his  pen  in  this 
Preface  of  his  as  with  a  sword.  In  these  power- 
ful pages  Butler  turns  and  charges  home  on  his 
idle-minded  and  fault-finding  readers  in  a  way 
that  still  reaches  to  many  readers  among  our- 
selves. We  all  reel  under  Butler's  blows  as  we 
read  his  retaliatory  Preface  to  his  Rolls  Sermons. 

The  three  epoch-making  sermons  on  Human 
Nature  commence  with  a  characteristically 
conducted  examination  as  to  what  human 
nature  really  is  ;  of  what  several  parts  it  is 
composed,  and  how  those  several  parts  are  all 

B 


Butler 


constituted  and  constructed  into  human  nature 
as  we  possess  it  and  know  it.  And  then  from 
that,  Butler  proceeds  to  ask  what  it  is  for  a 
man  to  "  live  according  to  his  nature,"  as  the 
Stoics  always  insisted  that  every  man  ought  to 
live.  Christian  bishop  as  Butler  was,  it  was 
true  of  him  what  Maurice  says  about  Jonathan 
Edwards  :  "  He  was  not  afraid  to  agree  with 
the  Stoics  when  they  were  right."  Appropri- 
ating, therefore,  the  very  words  of  those 
"  ancient  moralists,"  as  he  always  calls  them, 
Butler  proceeds  to  explain  and  to  enforce  their 
teaching  by  showing  that  human  nature  is 
made  up  of  its  several  appetites,  passions, 
affections,  and  emotions,  and  that  conscience 
sits  as  a  sovereign  and  a  judge  over  all  these 
her  subjects.  And  it  is  just  in  his  discovery 
and  exposition  of  this  complex  constitution 
of  human  nature  ;  and  especially  it  is  in  his 
discovery  and  vindication  of  the  supremacy  of 
conscience,  that  Butler's  services  to  philosophy, 
and  to  morals,  and  to  religion,  are  so  original  and 
so  immense.  "  In  his  three  sermons  on  Human 


Appreciation  19 

Nature,"  says  Dr.  Eagar,  "  Butler  dropped 
a  plummet  into  depths  before  unsounded." 
"It  may  be  stated,  once  for  all,"  says  Car- 
michael  in  his  admirably  annotated  edition  of 
the  Rolls  Sermons,  "  that  to  Butler  belongs  the 
merit  of  having  first,  as  a  scientific  moralist, 
made  the  supremacy  of  conscience  the  subject 
of  distinct  and  reflex  cognition."  And  then, 
after  characterising  the  ethical  standards  of 
Plato  and  Aristotle  and  Bentham  and  Hobbes,  > 
Carmichael  goes  on  to  say,  "  Butler  would 
simply  direct  the  enquirer  to  reverence  his 
conscience,  to  respect  its  dictates,  and  to 
bring  all  his  conduct  before  it  as  before  a 
faculty  from  which  there  can  be  no  appeal 
but  to  itself :  that  is  to  say,  from  its  unil- 
lumined  to  its  enlightened  decision,  to  seek  for 
that  enlightenment,  to  wish  for  it,  and  in  the 
consciousness  of  his  countless  secret  faults  and 
his  unnumbered  shortcomings,  to  pray  for  it, 
and  to  bow  down,  an  humble,  contrite  penitent, 
before  that  God  in  whose  sight  even  the 
heavens  are  not  clean." 


20 


Butler 


The  law  of  conscience  in  the  moral  world  is 
like  nothing  so  much  as  the  law  of  gravitation 
in  the  material  world.  And  both  those  founda- 
tion laws  of  Almighty  God  were  for  the  first 
time  brought  to  light  in  the  same  generation  : 
the  one  by  Newton  and  the  other  by  Butler. 
Newton  made  the  most  magnificent  and  the 
most  fruitful  of  all  physical  discoveries,  that 
every  atom  of  matter  in  the  material  universe 
exercises  a  measurable  influence  on  every  other 
atom  ;  and  that  this  law,  which  he  named  the 
law  of  gravitation,  is  absolutely  universal  and 
invariable  in  its  operation.  The  smallest  atom 
of  red-hot  lava  at  the  heart  of  our  own  earth 
throwsoutan  influenceof  attraction  that  measur- 
ably affects  the  remotest  speck  of  star-dust 
on  the  outermost  border  of  the  unfathomable 
universe.  And  it  was  while  the  minds  of  men 
were  so  overawed  and  exalted  with  Newton's 
astounding  discovery  and  with  all  that  followed 
upon  it,  that  Butler  made  his  parallel  discovery 
and  demonstration  of  the  law  of  conscience 
in  the  moral  world.    This  law,  namely,  that 


Appreciation  21 

there  is  not  an  act  that  any  man  performs,  nor 
a  word  that  any  man  speaks,  nor  a  thought  in 
any  man's  mind,  nor  an  affection  in  any  man's 
heart,  that  is  not  all  placed  under  the  sceptre 
of  his  conscience.  It  is  true,  the  nature  of 
man  in  the  present  life  is  such,  that  the  law  of 
conscience  suffers  endless  perturbations  and 
suspensions,  and  sometimes  what  would  seem 
to  be  reversals ;  but  so  does  the  law  of 
gravitation.  And  just  as  our  ever-widening 
knowledge  has  proved  the  absolute  univers- 
ality and  inviolability  of  Newton's  law,  so 
will  it  be  with  Butler's  law.  Wait,  says 
Butler,  till  you  enter  on  the  completing  dis- 
pensation of  things,  and  you  will  find  that 
conscience  has  only  handed  over  all  her  seem- 
ing defeats  and  reversals  to  the  judgment  and 
to  the  power  of  One  who  will  sooner  see 
heaven  and  earth  perish  than  that  one  jot 
or  tittle  of  His  moral  law  shall  be  left  un- 
vindicated  and  unexecuted.  Both  the  law  of 
gravitation  and  the  law  of  conscience  had  been 
laid  by  Almighty  God  on  nature  and  on  man 


22 


Butler 


from  the  beginning.  But  those  two  universally- 
binding  laws  of  God  were  never  fully  dis- 
covered nor  finally  demonstrated  to  the 
children  of  men  till  Newton  and  Butler  were 
raised  up  to  discover  them  and  to  demonstrate 
them.  And  that  immense  service,  so  far  as 
the  law  of  conscience  is  concerned,  is  performed 
by  Butler  in  his  three  epoch-making  sermons 
on  Human  Nature.  The  noble  teaching  of 
those  three  sermons  has  been  so  absorbed  and 
assimilated  into  our  best  literature,  that  it  is 
not  very  easy  for  us  to  go  back  to  that  age 
when  Butler's  doctrine  of  conscience  could  be 
called  a  new  discovery,  as  Sir  James  Mackintosh 
so  emphatically  calls  it.  Dr.  Newman,  especially, 
has  made  Butler's  teaching  on  the  subject  of 
conscience  such  a  theme  of  his  in  a  multitude  of 
magnificent  passages,  that  the  supremacy,  and 
the  authority,  and  the  anticipations,  and  the 
presages,  of  conscience  are  all  familiar  ideas  to 
us,  as  well  as  daily  experiences.  Newman  took 
up  his  great  master's  teaching  on  conscience, 
and  brought  to  that  teaching  all  his  own  so 


Appreciation  23 

captivating  English  style,  and  all  his  own  so 
unequalled  homiletical  genius,  in  both  of  which 
gifts  Butler  was,  comparatively  speaking,  so 
deficient.  It  is  true  that  all  the  best  literature, 
both  ancient  and  modern,  has  always  been  full 
of  the  omnipresence,  and  the  authority,  and 
the  presages,  of  conscience.  But  it  was  Butler 
who  first  established  all  that  on  a  scientific  and 
an  unassailable  basis  ;  till  it  almost  seems  as 
if  very  conscience  herself  holds  the  pen  and 
mounts  the  pulpit  in  these  three  immortal 
sermons  upon  herself. 

Robert  Hall  on  one  occasion  gave  a  young 
preacher  a  most  impressive  advice  as  to  his 
frequently  taking  up  particular  parts  of  con- 
duct and  character  in  his  sermons.  John 
Foster  also,  both  by  precept  and  example, 
often  sets  this  duty  before  his  ministerial 
readers.  Butler  was  still  but  a  young  preacher 
when  he  delivered  his  extraordinarily  original 
and  pungent  sermon  on  this  particular  part  of 
conduct  and  character — the  government  of  the 


24  Butler 

tongue.  Butler  was  still  a  young  man,  but 
there  is  a  whole  lifetime  of  observation  and 
insight,  1  might  almost  say  of  suffering  and 
exasperation,  in  that  single  sermon.  No  one 
ever  reads  that  sermon,  and  of  those  who  do 
read  it,  not  one  in  ten  pays  any  attention  to  it 
so  as  to  apply  it  to  himself.  And  thus  the 
widespread  mischief  and  misery  go  on,  just  as 
if  that  sermon  had  never  been  written.  "  The 
fault  referred  to,  and  the  disposition  supposed," 
says  the  preacher,  "  is  not  evil-speaking  from 
malice,  nor  lying,  nor  bearing  false  witness  for 
selfish  ends.  The  thing  here  supposed  is  talk- 
ativeness." Nothing  seems  to  have  worn  out 
Butler  like  the  incessant  talking  of  the  people 
round  about  him.  After  his  death  his  enemies 
said  that  he  had  died  a  Papist.  But  that  was 
only  another  instance  of  their  irrepressible 
talkativeness.  Butler  did  not  die  a  Papist, 
but  he  would  be  tempted  sometimes  to  think 
of  entering  the  Carthusian  Order  so  as  to 
escape  for  ever  from  the  tongues  of  continually 
talking  men.    Butler  rode  a  little  black  pony, 


Appreciation  25 

and  he  always  rode  it  as  fast  as  it  could  carry 
him — so  his  old  parishioners  used  to  tell.  He 
rode  fast,  sometimes,  to  escape  the  crowds  of 
beggars  who  continually  infested  him,  and 
sometimes,  as  we  are  led  to  think,  to  escape 
the  tongues  of  men  who  so  continually  tor- 
mented him.  It  has  been  said  that  there  is  a 
certain  tinge  of  remorse  in  the  style  of  Tacitus. 
And  I  never  read  Butler's  sermon  on  the  mis- 
government  of  the  tongue  without  detecting  in 
that  sermon  Butler's  own  bitter  remorse  for 
his  misgovernment  of  his  own  tongue.  No 
man  ever  speaks  with  such  an  intense  bitterness 
as  I  taste  in  that  sermon  except  when  he  speaks 
in  remorse,  and  in  self-resentment,  and,  as 
Butler  says,  with  real  self-dishke  toward  him- 
self. And  then,  lest  some  of  his  superficial 
readers  should  think  that  he  is  making  far  too 
much  of  a  small  matter,  he  has  this  observa- 
tion, that  "  the  greatest  evils  in  life  have  had 
their  rise  from  somewhat  which  was  thought 
of  too  little  importance  to  be  attended  to." 
"  There  is,  nor  can  be,"  says  Mr.  Gladstone, 


26 


Butler 


"  no  superannuation  in  this  sermon."  No : 
not  so  long  as  men  and  women  are  ruining 
themselves  every  day  by  talking  continually, 
and  by  straining  continually,  as  Butler  has  it, 
"  to  engage  your  attention  :  to  take  you  up 
wholly  for  the  present  time  :  what  reflections 
will  be  made  afterwards  is  in  truth  the  least 
of  their  thoughts."  The  son  of  Sirach  is  a 
classical  author  with  Butler  :  "  Honour  and 
shame  is  in  talk.  A  wise  man  will  hold  his 
tongue  till  he  sees  opportunity ;  but  a  babbler 
and  a  fool  will  regard  no  time.  He  that  useth 
many  words  will  be  abhorred  ;  and  he  that 
taketh  to  himself  authority  therein  shall  be 
hated.  The  tongue  of  a  man  is  his  fall."  Let 
every  man  who  has  a  tongue  to  govern  read 
regularly,  once  every  year,  Butler's  bitter  ser- 
mon on  that  subject,  and  lay  it  to  heart. 

"  Balaam"  and  "David  "  are  two  tremendous 
sermons.  "  Good  God,  what  inconsistency  is 
here  !  What  fatality  is  here !  "  Butler  bursts 
out  in  a  v/ay  most  unusual  with  him.  And 


Appreciation  27 

then  he  goes  down  to  the  darkest  bottom  of 
Balaam's  heart,  and  of  his  hearer's  heart,  with 
the  two-edged  sword  of  the  Spirit  in  his  hand. 
lUt  lES  Butler's  Balaam  is  one  of  the  most  terrible 
pieces  of  conscience-searching  invective  in  the 
English  language.  And  then,  David's  self- 
partiality  and  self-deceit  make  the  tenth 
sermon  a  companion  sermon,  quite  worthy 
of  the  seventh  sermon.  Both  those  sermons 
must  be  read  many  times  over  before  their 
tremendous  power  will  be  believed.  "  I  am 
persuaded,"  says  the  preacher,  "  that  a  very 
great  part  of  the  wickedness  of  the  vi'orld  is, 
one  way  or  other,  owing  to  the  self-partiality, 
self-flattery,  and  self-deceit,  endeavoured  here 
to  be  laid  open  and  explained.  Those  who 
have  taken  notice  that  there  is  really  such  a 
thing,  namely,  plain  falseness  and  insincerity 
in  men  with  regard  to  themselves,  will  readily 
see  the  drift  and  design  of  these  discourses. 
And  nothing  that  I  can  add  will  explain  the 
design  of  them  to  him  who  has  not  beforehand 
remarked  at  least  somewhat  of  the  character." 


28 


Butler 


"  Viewed  in  the  light  of  the  Gospel,"  says 
Carmichael,  "  this  sermon  is  incomplete." 

"On  Resentment"  is  a  most  enlightening  and 
memorable  sermon.  "  One  point  in  Butler's 
account  of  resentment,"  says  Dr.  Whewell, 
"  has  been  admired  as  happy  and  novel.  I 
mean  the  distinction  he  draws  between  anger 
and  settled  resentment."  And  Whewell  sums 
up  Butler's  doctrines  on  these  subjects  in  these 
words  :  "  The  distinction  that  Butler  takes 
between  sudden  anger  and  settled  resentment 
is  of  this  kind.  Sudden  anger  does  not  imply 
that  we  have  wrong  inflicted  on  us,  resentment 
does.  Sudden  anger  flashes  up  before  we  have 
time  to  reflect,  and  resists  all  violence  and 
harm  :  resentment  glows  with  a  permanent 
heat  against  injury  and  injustice.  Sudden 
anger  is  an  instinct  implanted  for  the  pre- 
servation of  the  individual  :  resentment  is  a 
moral  sentiment  given  for  the  repression  of 
injustice,  and  the  preservation  of  society.  The 
former,  we  may  add,  belongs  to  animals  as  well 


Appreciation  29 

as  to  men,  the  latter  is  peculiar  to  mankind." 
Let  every  hot-hearted,  and  every  sullen-hearted, 
and  every  spiteful-hearted,  man  lay  this  sermon 
of  Butler's  to  heart,  and  it  will  be  a  great 
assistance  to  him  in  his  deliverance  from  his 
besetting  sin. 

The  sermon  on  the  Forgiveness  of  Injuries 
is  full  of  that  moral  and  intellectual  seed- 
sowing  which  is  so  characteristic  of  all  Butler's 
best  work,  and  which  has  made  his  writings 
so  singularly  fruitful  to  all  his  readers.  And 
the  same  thing  may  be  said  about  his  two 
beautiful  sermons  on  the  Love  of  our  Neigh- 
bour. It  is  in  the  second  of  those  two  sermons 
that  this  single  seed  is  dropped  which  has 
raised  such  a  harvest  of  thoughtfulness,  and 
fellow-feeling,  and  brotherly  love,  in  so  many 
of  Butler's  readers.  This  single  seed,  that 
"  we  ourselves  differ  from  other  men  just  as 
much  as  they  differ  from  us."  The  two 
sermons  are  summed  up  into  this  closing 
prayer  :  "  O  Almighty  God,  inspire  us  with 


30  Butler 

this  divine  principle  of  brotherly  love.  Kill 
in  us  all  the  seeds  of  envy  and  ill-will.  And 
help  us,  by  cultivating  within  ourselves  the 
love  of  our  neighbour,  to  improve  in  the  love 
of  Thee.  Thou  hast  placed  us  in  various 
kindreds,  friendships,  and  relations,  as  the 
school  of  discipline  for  our  affections.  Help 
us,  by  the  due  exercise  of  all  these,  to  im- 
prove to  perfection,  till  all  partial  a/Fection 
be  lost  in  that  entire  universal  one,  and  Thou, 
O  God,  Shalt  be  all  in  all." 

In  his  two  sermons  on  the  Love  of  God, 
Butler  touches  by  far  his  highest  chord. 
There  is  the  very  thrill  of  David  and  Isaiah 
in  those  two  sermons,  if  not  of  Paul  and 
John.  In  the  fourteenth  Essay  of  his  Hora 
Sabbatk^e,  Sir  James  Stephen  says  that  the 
famous  sermons  on  the  Love  of  God  are  in 
his  judgment  not  only  the  greatest  of  Butler's 
writings,  but  they  are  also  the  first  to  which 
a  person  Avho  wishes  to  understand  those 
writings  as  a  whole  should  attend.     I  have 


Appreciation  31 

preferred  to  take  Butler's  own  arrangement 
of  his  sermons,  and  to  study  them  in  the 
order  in  which  he  has  placed  them  himself. 
I  agree  with  Sir  James  Stephen  that  those 
two  sermons  are  the  greatest  of  Butler's  writ- 
ings, and  I  return  to  them  oftener  than  to  any 
other  of  his  writings,  and  always  with  the 
same  result.  So  far  as  they  go  they  are  to 
me  among  the  most  conclusive  and  satisfying 
pieces  of  religious  writing  in  the  English 
language,  and  every  serious  student  ought  to 
return  to  those  sermons  till  he  has  them,  as 
we  say,  by  heart.  This  is  the  characteristically 
quiet  way  in  which  Butler  introduces  us  to 
those  enthralling  sermons:  "There  must  be 
some  movements  of  mind  and  heart  which 
correspond  to  the  divine  perfection."  It  is  from 
these  few  words  that  those  truly  magnificent 
sermons  are  developed  and  elaborated  and 
reasoned  out,  and  that  with  such  depth  and 
strength  and  opulence  of  thought,  and  with 
such  masculine  eloquence  of  style.  In  his  ad- 
mirably annotated  edition  of  the  Ro/Is  SermoJis^ 


32  Butler 

Carmichael  has  this  introductory  footnote 
to  guide  the  student  through  those  deep 
sermons  :  "  Although  the  thirteenth  and  four- 
teenth sermons  are  included  under  the  same 
head,  the  points  of  view  are  widely  different. 
In  the  thirteenth  sermon  Butler  treats  of  the 
love  of  God  as  an  affection  in  the  highest 
degree  reasonable,  alike  from  the  constitution 
of  man  and  the  character  of  God.  In  the 
fourteenth  sermon  he  considers  the  love  of 
God  as  a  principle  which  is  influenced  in  its 
exercise  by  man's  present  condition,  and  is  to 
be  perfected  in  heaven."  Butler  is  the  least 
scriptural  of  all  our  great  preachers,  but  for 
once  he  closes  and  crowns  those  two  magnificent 
sermons  with  a  long  chain  of  scripture  passages 
which  gleam  in  Butler's  somewhat  sombre 
pages  like  a  cluster  of  pearls.  Such  masterly 
sermons  as  these  are,  and  coming  to  such  a 
close,  and  approaching,  as  they  sometimes  do 
approach,  to  the  very  borders  of  becoming 
evangelical — all  this  makes  us  wish  that  Butler 
had  gone  on  to  give  himself  up  wholly  to 


Appreciation  33 

apostolical  and  evangelical  theology,  instead 
of  spending  his  great  gifts  on  philosophical 
apologetics,  however  successfully  and  however 
fruitfully  executed.  As  it  is,  those  two  truly 
superb  sermons  will  always  go  with  the  reader 
of  Butler  to  lighten  up  his  path  and  to  warm 
his  heart  as  he  toils  on  through  the  somewhat 
unsunned  and  severe  spaces  of  the  Analogy. 

Now,  after  saying  all  that,  it  is  a  strong 
thing  to  go  on  to  say  that  as  far  as  Butler's 
sermons  on  our  love  to  God  are  concerned, 
the  Son  of  God  need  never  have  come  with 
His  Father's  message  of  love  to  us,  nor  need 
the  New  Testament  Epistles  ever  have  been 
written.  The  truth  is,  the  very  name  of  Him 
in  whom  God's  love  to  us  has  been  most  fully 
manifested,  and  in  whom  our  love  to  God  is 
first  kindled,  is  never  mentioned  by  Butler  in 
these  two  sermons.  Literally,  the  name  of 
our  Lord  occurs  only  once,  and  that  once  is  in 
a  quite  incidental  way,  in  the  whole  of  these 
sermons.  Now,  very  far  be  it  from  me  to 
point  that  out  in  order  to  raise  a  prejudice 
c 


34  Butler 

against  Butler.    My  sole  object  in  pointing 
out  this  distressing  limitation  and  impoverish- 
ment of  Butler's  high  argument  is  in  order 
to  forewarn  the  student  not  to  expect  what 
Butler's  chosen  and  deliberate  plan  does  not 
promise,  or  indeed  permit.    Butler  has  deter- 
mined to  rest  his  whole  argument  with  us  on 
those  deep  and  primeval  foundations  which 
are  laid  in  the  nature  of  God,  and  in  the 
corresponding  constitution  of  the  mind  and 
heart  of  man.    "  It  cannot  be  denied  " — they 
are  Butler's  own  words  in  his  first  sermon — 
"  that  our  being  God's  creatures,  and  virtue 
being  the  natural  law  we  are  born  under,  and 
the  whole  constitution  of  man  being  plainly 
adapted  to  it,  are  prior  obligations  to  piety 
and  virtue  than  the  consideration  that  God 
sent  His  Son  into  the  world  to  save  it." 
Now,  it  is  among  those  "  prior  obligations " 
that  Butler's  mind  is  most  at  home,  and  moves 
most   easily.     And  it  is    on    those  "  prior 
obligations"  that  he  preaches  with  such  in- 
comparable power.    Whereas  the  New  Testa- 


Appreciation  35 

ment,  while  taking  its  first  stand  on  those  same 
"  prior  obligations,"  goes  on  to  bring  forward 
still  stronger  obligations  to  piety  and  virtue. 
The  God  of  redemption  claims  our  love  and 
our  obedience  on  this  supreme  obligation,  that 
He  has  purchased  us  to  Himself  at  a  great 
price,  till  we  are  no  longer  our  own.  Butler 
himself  has  taught  us  that  new  relations  both 
demand  and  produce  new  affections  and  new 
duties.  But  in  his  present  sermons  he  has 
left  out  the  most  heart-melting  relations  and 
affections  of  all ;  that  is  to  say,  God's  relations 
and  affections  to  us  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  our 
relations  and  affections  back  again  in  Jesus 
Chi-ist  to  God.  Had  Butler  but  followed 
out  his  own  teaching  on  relations  and  their 
resulting  duties  in  these  two  sermons,  what 
a  magnificent  service  he  would  thereby  have 
rendered  to  New  Testament  theology  and 
morals,  and  to  his  New  Testament  readers. 
Carmichael,  while  v/armly  defending  Butler 
from  some  philosophical  censures  of  Mack- 
intosh, and  Wardlaw,  and  Maurice,  is  himself 


36  Butler 

compelled  to  append  this  note  of  censure  to 
these  two  sermons:  "It  will  be  a  matter  of 
surprise  and  regret  to  the  Christian  reader 
that,  in  the  two  sermons  on  the  Love  of  God, 
the  New  Testament  should  have  been  almost 
completely  ignored.  It  may  indeed  be  urged 
that  Butler  was  mainly  concerned  in  establish- 
ing upon  natural  and  metaphysical  grounds, 
the  reasonableness  of  our  love  of  God.  But 
this  will  scarcely  justify  the  omission  of  all 
reference  to  truths,  such,  for  example,  as  are 
contained  in  the  words,  Come  unto  Me,  all  ye 
that  labour,  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest.  Take  My  yoke  upon  you,  and 
learn  of  Me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in 
heart,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls." 
But  the  best  explanation  of  this  constant  and 
distressing  defect  in  Butler  is  supplied  in  this 
true  distinction  of  Maurice  :  "  Butler  was  a 
preacher  professionally  ;  whereas  he  was  by 
instinct  and  by  character  a  philosopher." 

Hazlitt  has  finely  said  about  Burke  that  the 


Appreciation  37 

only  specimen  of  the  great  orator  is  ail  that 
he  ever  wrote.  And  the  same  thing  may  be 
said  about  Butler  with  even  more  truth  and 
point.  At  the  same  time,  if  I  were  asked 
what,  to  my  mind,  is  the  best  specimen  of  the 
real  Butler,  I  would  without  hesitation  say 
that  it  is  his  great  sermon  On  The  Ignorance 
of  Man.  Nowhere  else,  in  such  short  space, 
do  Butler's  immense  depth  of  mind  ;  his 
constitutional  seriousness  of  mind,  even  to 
melancholy  ;  his  humility  and  his  wisdom,  all 
come  out,  and  all  at  their  best,  as  in  his  great 
sermon  On  The  Ignorance  of  Man.  Socrates 
himself  might  have  written  the  sermon  On 
The  Ignorance  of  Man.  Only,  by  Butler's 
day  the  diameter  of  knowledge  had  been  so 
extended  that  the  corresponding  circumference 
of  ignorance  was  immensely  enlarged  beyond 
the  realised  ignorance  of  Socrates's  day. 
"  Creation  is  absolutely  and  entirely  out  of 
our  depth  and  beyond  the  extent  of  our 
utmost  reach.  And  yet  it  is  as  certain  that 
God  made  the  world,  as  it  is  certain  that 


38  Butler 

effects  must  have  a  cause.  It  is  indeed,  in 
general,  no  more  than  effects  that  the  most 
knowing  are  acquainted  with ;  for  as  for 
causes,  the  most  knowing  are  as  entirely  in 
the  dark  as  the  most  ignorant."  And  so 
of  the  government  of  the  world.  "  Since 
the  Divine  Monarchy  is  a  dominion  unlimited 
in  extent  and  everlasting  in  duration,  it  cannot 
but  be  absolutely  beyond  our  comprehension." 
And  Butler's  deep  heart  reflects  on  all  these 
things  till  he  can  only  find  adequate  utterance 
for  his  heart  in  such  prostrate  and  adoring 
passages  as  these  :  "  Thy  faithfulness,  O  Lord, 
reacheth  uuto  the  clouds  :  Thy  righteous- 
ness standeth  like  the  strong  mountains : 
Thy  judgments  are  like  the  great  deep.  O 
the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of  the  wisdom 
and  the  knowledge  of  God  !  How  unsearch- 
able are  His  judgments,  and  His  ways  past 
finding  out !  "  And,  then,  he  would  not  be 
Butler  if  he  did  not  read  all  that  home 
to  himself  and  to  his  hearers  in  some  of  the 
weightiest  words  that  ever  were  written  by 


Appreciation  39 

the  pen  of  man.  Dr.  Angus  well  says  that 
this  sermon  is  one  of  the  most  impressive 
examples  of  Butler's  wisdom.  Altogether, 
the  fifteen  Rolls  Sermons,  if  sometimes  very 
"abstruse  and  difficult,  or,  if  you  please, 
obscure,"  as  their  author  admits  they  are,  will 
always  be  an  epoch  in  the  intellectual  and 
moral  life  of  the  student  who  takes  the  trouble 
to  master  them. 

With  that  studied  caprice  which  becomes  so 
belittling  to  himself,  and  so  wearisome  to  his 
most  admiring  readers,  Matthew  Arnold  tells 
us  that  the  most  entirely  satisfactory  to  him  of 
all  Butler's  productions  are  the  Six  Sermons 
on  Public  Occasions.  Arnold  is  alone  in  that 
satisfaction,  as  he  so  ostentatiously  advertises 
himself  to  be.  The  Six  Sermons  are  very  able 
sermons,  and  they  are  all  sermons  that  Butler 
alone  in  that  day  could  have  written.  But 
there  is  one  sermon  among  them  that  I  could 
wish  for  the  honour  of  his  good  name  that 
Butler  had  never  written  :  his  sermon  preached 
before  the  House  of  Lords  on  "  The  martyr- 


4©  Butler 

dom  of  King  Charles  the  First."  This  sermon 
is  as  unworthy  of  Butler  as  the  Gowrie  series 
are  unworthy  of  Andrewes.  Both  those  great 
and  good  men  still  remained  men  enough  to 
suffer  both  their  pulpits  to  be  tuned  on 
occasion,  and  by  the  same  finger. 

The  Analogy  of  Religion,  Natural 
AND  Revealed,  to  the  Constitution  and 
Course  of  Nature,  is  the  full  title  of 
Butler's  second  great  work.  "  Others,"  says 
Southey  in  his  famous  epitaph  on  Butler, 
"had  established  the  historical  and  prophetical 
grounds  of  the  Christian  religion,  as  also  that 
sure  testimony  to  its  truth  which  is  found  in 
its  perfect  adaptation  to  the  heart  of  man. 
But  it  was  reserved  for  Butler  to  develop  its 
analogy  to  the  constitution  and  the  course  of 
nature.  And,  laying  its  strong  foundations  in 
the  depth  of  that  argument,  there  to  construct 
another  and  an  irrefragable  proof.  Thus 
rendering  philosophy  subservient  to  faith  ;  and 


Appreciation  41 

finding  in  outward  and  visible  things  the  type 
and  the  evidence  of  things  within  the  veil." 
The  angel's  words  to  Adam  in  Paradise  Lost 
will  supply  another  remarkable  illustration  and 
enforcement  of  Butler's  title-page — 

"  What  surmounts  the  reach 
Of  human  sense  I  will  delineate  so 
By  likening  spiritual  to  corporal  forms 
As  may  express  them  best,  tho'  what  if  Earth 
Be  but  the  shadow  of  Heaven,  and  things  therein 
Each  to  other  like,  more  than  on  earth  is  thoughir" 

The  Apostle's  words  also  in  his  Ejiistle  to 
the  Romans  might  very  well  have  been  taken 
for  a  motto  to  the  Analogy  :  "  For  the  in- 
visible things  of  Him  from  the  creation  of  the 
world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by 
the  things  that  are  made,  even  His  eternal 
power  and  Godhead,  so  that  they  are  without 
excuse."  "  All  things  are  double,  one  against 
another,"  says  one  of  Butler's  favourite 
authors.  And,  then,  the  real  design  of  the 
Analogy,  as  Butler  himself  explains  to  us,  is 
not,  as  so  many  have  assumed,  to  vindicate 
the  character  of  God,  but  to  show  the  obliga- 


42  Butler 

tions  of  men  :  it  is  not  to  justify  God's 
providences  toward  us,  but  to  show  us  what 
belongs  to  us  to  do  under  His  providence. 

When  the  studious  reader  of  the  Rolls 
Sermons  opens  the  Analogy,  he  has  not  gone  far 
into  that  deep  book  till  he  begins  to  discover 
the  presence  of  the  Rolls  preacher  in  the 
person  of  the  philosopher.  The  same  qualities 
of  mind,  and  heart,  and  character,  that  so 
signalised  the  preacher  come  out  conspicuously 
in  the  apologist  also.  The  same  profound 
thoughtfulness  at  once  comes  out,  the  same 
deep  seriousness,  the  same  sober-mindedness, 
the  same  intellectual  and  moral  humility,  the 
same  scrupulous  truthfulness,  the  same  fairness 
to  opponents,  the  same  immediate  and  un- 
questioning submission  to  the  will  of  God, 
and  the  same  subordination  of  everything  to 
the  sovereignty  of  conscience  :  all  these  char- 
acteristic quaUties  so  come  out  both  in  the 
Sermons  and  in  the  Analogy,  that  if  both  these 
books  had   been  anonymous,  every  capable 


Appreciation  43 

reader  would  have  set  them  down  with  abso- 
lute certainty  to  the  same  author.  And  this 
is  just  what  Butler  starts  his  great  work  by- 
saying  about  Nature  and  Revelation  ;  and  he 
repeats  it  and  proves  it  till  he  claims  at  the 
end  of  his  high  argument  to  have  as  good  as 
demonstrated  to  every  willing  and  receptive 
reader  that  the  Author  of  Nature  is  also  the 
Author  of  Revelation.  Butler  is  the  most 
modest  of  controversialists  ;  but  as  he  closes 
his  Analogy  he  is  bold  to  claim  that  he  has  shut 
all  serious-minded  men  up  to  the  beliefs,  and 
to  the  comforts,  and  to  the  duties,  and  to  the 
hopes,  that  all  arise  out  of  Revelation.  The 
amazingly  close  analogy  that  subsists  between 
natural  and  revealed  religion  and  the  constitu- 
tion and  course  of  nature  is  Butler's  great 
argument,  but  no  mere  description  of  his 
argument,  however  true  and  however  exact, 
and  no  epitome  of  it,  not  even  his  own  masterly 
epitome  of  it,  can  convey  any  conception  of 
the  wealth  of  thought  that  goes  to  establish  his 
argument,  or  of  the  enlarging  and  enriching  of 


44  Butler 

mind  that  comes  to  the  reader  as  he  accom- 
panies Butler  through  his  magnificent  apology. 
Till,  such  is  his  own  experience,  that  the 
reader  ceases  to  wonder  at  the  extraordinary 
acknowledgments  of  indebtedness  that  he  finds 
paid  to  Butler  on  all  hands.  "  Bishop  Butler," 
wrote  Mr.  Gladstone  in  1873,  "taught  me 
forty-five  years  ago  to  suspend  my  judgment 
on  things  I  knew  I  did  not  understand.  Even 
with  his  aid  I  may  often  have  been  wrong ; 
without  him  I  think  I  should  never  have 
been  right.  And  oh  !  that  this  age  knew  the 
treasure  it  possesses  in  him,  and  neglects." 
"  I  have  derived  greater  aid  from  the  views 
and  reasonings  of  Bishop  Butler,"  says  Dr. 
Chalmers,  "  than  I  have  been  able  to  find 
besides  in  the  whole  range  of  our  extant  author- 
ship. It  was  Butler  who  made  me  a  Christian," 
says  that  great  man  and  true  Christian.  True 
as  I  believe  all  that  to  be,  at  the  same 
time  I  entirely  agree  with  what  Maurice  says 
in  his  admirable  remarks  on  the  Analogy. 
"  Butler,"  says  Maurice,  "  is  such  a  great  and 


Appreciation  45 

generative  thinker,  that  his  hints  are  often  far 
more  to  us  than  even  his  conclusions."  Now, 
that  has  been  the  case  most  emphatically  with 
myself.  I  have  almost  lost  myself  sometimes 
in  travelling  on  to  Butler's  conclusions.  But 
it  has  been  the  hints  of  things,  and  the  seeds 
of  thought,  that  Butler  has  dropped  into  my 
mind  as  I  walked  with  him — it  is  this  that 
makes  me  to  continue  to  walk  with  him  and 
to  keep  so  close  beside  him.  Dean  Church 
also  has  given  eloquent  expression  to  my  own 
feelings  as  a  student  of  Butler.  "  Even  if  a 
person  cannot  thoroughly  master  the  argu- 
ment, yet  the  tone  and  the  spirit  of  the  book, 
and  its  whole  manner  of  looking  at  things,  is 
so  remarkable,  is  so  high,  so  original,  so  pure 
and  so  calmly  earnest,  that  great  interest  may 
be  taken  in  Butler's  book,  and  an  infinite 
amount  of  good  may  be  got  out  of  it  even  by 
those  who  are  baffled  by  its  difficult  argument." 
And  again,  "  there  is  as  much  to  be  learned 
from  Butler's  tone  and  manner  as  there  is  from 
the  substance  of  his  reasonings." 


46  Butler 

"Probability  is  the  very  guide  of 
LIFE."  ,  This  famous  proposition  of  Butler's 
contains  the  essence  of  his  extraordinarily  able 
Introduction  to  the  Analogy.  And  to  master 
Butler's  great  doctrine  of  probability  is  the 
student's  first  palaestra-like  encounter  with 
Butler,  of  which  encounter  Mr.  Gladstone  writes 
so  impressively  and  so  eloquently.  Multitudes 
of  new  beginners  have  been  turned  away  from 
Butler  by  the  difficulty  they  experienced  in 
mastering  his  opening  pages.  But  had  they 
persevered  ;  had  they  tried  the  Introduction 
again  and  again,  and  had  they  been  encouraged 
to  go  on  into  the  body  of  the  book  even 
though  they  had  not  yet  taken  full  possession 
of  its  opening  pages,  they  would  have  got  such 
pleasure  and  such  profit  in  the  body  of  the 
book  that  they  would  have  returned  to  the 
Introduction  somewhat  accustomed  to  Butler's 
difficult  style,  and  would  thus  have  more  easily 
mastered  his  fundamental  principles.  What 
both  Maurice  and  Church  say  so  well  about 
the  difficulty  of  Butler's  writings,  and  at  the 


Appreciation  47 

same  time  about  his  many  ways  of  rewarding 
his  persevering  readers,  should  be  kept  con- 
tinually before  all  new  beginners  in  this  great 
intellectual  arena.  As  also  this  that  Dr. 
Bernard  says  on  this  subject  :  "  It  is  conduct, 
not  conviction,  that  Butler  has  in  his  mind 
throughout."  And  so  true  is  it  that  proba- 
bility is  the  guide  of  life  and  conduct,  that 
there  will  be  seasons  with  the  most  experienced 
and  the  most  assured  of  Christian  men  when 
difficulties,  both  speculative  and  experimental, 
will  so  beset  them  that  they  will  be  fain  to  fall 
back  upon  Butler's  great  law  of  probability. 
And  if  they  are  happy  enough  to  be  students 
of  Butler  and  followers  of  his,  they  will  often  be 
inexpressibly  thankful  to  him  for  what  he  has 
said  with  such  power  and  such  persuasiveness  as 
to  the  wisdom  and  the  duty  of  our  acting  often- 
times on  a  bare  probability  in  the  absence  of 
demonstrative  proof  and  full  assurance.  A 
proof  and  an  assurance  that  we  cannot  possibly 
have  concerning  the  most  important  matters 
both  of  this  life  and  the  next.    Do  what  your 


48  Butler 

conscience  tells  you  to  be  your  duty,  even  if  it 
is  only  on  probable  evidence,  and  in  doing  so 
you  will  act  according  to  the  true  nature  of 
your  own  mind  and  heart,  and  according  to 
the  true  nature  of  this  whole  economy  in  which 
God  has  placed  you  here,  says  Butler  to  his 
readers.  And  this  is  just  his  philosophical  and 
apologetical  way  of  adapting  to  us  our  Lord's 
own  authoritative  and  assuring  words :  "  If 
any  man  will  do  the  will  of  God,  he  shall 
know  the  doctrine."  And  again,  "  If  ye  con- 
tinue in  My  word,  then  are  ye  My  disciples 
indeed.  And  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and 
the  truth  shall  make  you  free." 

"  Death,  that  unknown  event,"  never  dies 
out  of  Butler's  thoughts,  and  he  never  lets  it 
die  out  of  his  reader's  thoughts.  Butler's 
whole  life  was,  in  Plato's  words,  one  long 
meditation  on  death ;  on  our  due  preparation 
for  death,  on  our  due  anticipation  of  death,  on 
the  real  nature  and  exact  experience  of  death 
when  it  comes  to  us,  and  on  the  nature  of  that 


Appreciation  49 

life  which  follows  death.  If  I  am  to  imagine 
other  readers  of  Butler  to  be  exercised  under 
his  arguments  and  conclusions  as  I  am,  the 
first  chapter  of  the  Analogy  will  give  them  not 
a  few  thoughts  and  feelings  in  connection  with 
the  great  shock  and  alteration  which  they  will 
undergo  by  death,  thoughts  and  feelings  which 
will  never  leave  them.  While  it  will  lead  them 
to  dwell  far  more  than  they  have  hitherto  dwelt 
on  "  that  something  in  themselves  which  is  quite 
out  of  the  reach  of  the  king  of  terrors."  The 
whole  argument  of  Butler's  chapter  on  a  future 
state  may  best  be  summed  up  in  these  words 
of  the  Apostle :  "  For  which  cause  we  faint 
not  ;  but  though  our  outward  man  perish,  yet 
the  inward  man  is  renewed  day  by  day."  And 
in  these  words  of  one  of  Butler's  latest  and 
best  commentators  :  "  The  senses  may  grow 
weak  ;  but  the  man  himself  does  not  weaken 
in  truth,  in  honesty,  in  uprightness,  in 
love." 

In  no  part  of  his  solemnising  and  overawing 
book  does  Butler  more  solemnise  and  overawe 

D 


50  Butler 

his  readers  than  in  his  chapter  on  probation. 
"The  conception,"  says  Canon  Spooner,  "which 
in  these  chapters  Butler  has  elaborated,  of  our 
present  life  being  a  period  of  probation  for  a 
future  state  of  existence,  has  probably  affected 
English  thought  more  than  any  other  part  of 
the  Analogy.'"  This  life  is  not  an  end  in 
itself  and  to  itself ;  this  life  is  meaningless 
and  purposeless,  it  is  a  maze  and  a  mystery, 
it  is  absolutely  without  explanation  or  justifica- 
tion to  Butler  unless  it  is  the  ordained  entrance 
to  another  life  which  is  to  be  the  completion 
and  the  compensation  of  this  life.  But,  then, 
grant  that  this  present  life  is  but  the  school- 
room and  the  practising-ground  to  another 
life,  and  what  a  grandeur  straightway  invests 
this  life  !  What  a  holy  fear,  and  what  a  holy 
hope,  thenceforward  take  possession  of  the 
heart  of  the  probationer  of  immortality  !  And 
then  it  is  in  working  out  his  great  argument  of 
probation  that  Butler  discovers  to  his  readers 
the  momentous  part  that  the  law  of  habit  per- 
forms in  the  formation  of  character,  and  in  the 


Appreciation  51 

successful  or  unsuccessful  probation  of  every 
man  who  has  another  life  before  him.  Next 
to  his  having  made  his  great  discovery  con- 
cerning conscience,  Butler  has  done  nothing 
more  important  and  more  fruitful  than  his 
enunciation  and  illustration  of  the  doctrine  of 
habit.  "  This  part  of  the  chapter,"  says  Canon 
Collins,  "  is  mainly  founded  on  Aristotle's 
ethical  theory,  and  Butler's  exposition  of  the 
growth  and  power  of  habit  has  been  considered 
by  many  to  be  the  most  valuable  part  of  the 
whole  treatise."  But  Mr.  Gladstone,  always 
scrupulously  jealous  for  Butler's  honour,  says, 
"  Seminally,  the  declarations  in  the  Ethics  of 
Aristotle  are  of  great  weight.  But  the  Greek 
writer  does  not  enter  on  the  field  of  self- 
education  at  all.  The  idea  of  mental  habits  is 
radically  distinct  in  the  two  writers  ;  and  the 
full  development  of  the  subject,  with  the  great 
lessons  it  conveys,  seems  to  be  due  to  the 
thought  of  Butler,"  Some  of  Butler's  most 
thought-laden  passages  are  on  this  subject,  and 
they  are  passages  never  to  be  forgotten  by  him 


52  Butler 

who  has  once  read  them  and  laid  them  to 
heart. 


In  the  Second  Part  of  the  Analogy,  as  in  the 
First  Part,  it  is  the  originality,  and  the  depth, 
and  the  seriousness,  and  the  suggestiveness, 
of  Butler's  incidental  thoughts,  occasional 
aphorisms,  and  solemnising  reflections,  that 
chiefly  instruct  and  impress  the  reader.  The 
great  argument  in  itself  does  not  in  every  part 
find  and  command  the  modern  reader.  But 
no  reader  with  sufficient  mind  and  heart,  and, 
as  Butler  is  always  saying,  with  sufficient 
seriousness,  can  accompany  Butler  through  his 
discussion  of  Revealed  Religion  without  carry- 
ing away  both  enlightening  and  enriching  for 
all  his  after  days.  Butler  opens  his  Second 
Part  with  some  great  thoughts  strikingly 
expressed  on  this  thesis  of  his,  that  Revealed 
Religion  is  an  authoritative  republication  of 
Natural  Religion  ;  that  the  divine  truths 
which  had  become  dimmed  and  distorted  in 
the  blinded  minds  and  the  corrupted  hearts 


Appreciation  53 

of  fallen  men,  were  kindled  afresh,  and 
were  set  forth  in  more  than  all  their  pristine 
authority  and  power,  in  Revelation.  "  Chris- 
tianity especially " — they  are  Butler's  own 
words — "  is  a  republication  of  Natural  Religion. 
Christianity  instructs  mankind  in  the  moral 
system  of  the  world  ;  that  it  is  the  work  of 
an  infinitely  perfect  Being,  and  is  under 
His  government ;  that  virtue  is  His  law ; 
and  that  He  will  finally  judge  mankind  in 
righteousness,  and  render  to  all  according  to 
their  works,  in  a  future  state.  And,  which  is 
very  material,  Christianity  teaches  Natural 
Religion  in  its  genuine  simplicity  ;  free  from 
those  superstitions  with  which  it  was  totally 
corrupted,  and  under  which  it  was  in  a  manner 
lost."  But  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  blessed 
be  God,  is  a  vast  deal  more,  and  a  vast  deal 
better,  than  a  mere  republication  of  Natural 
Religion.  Holy  Scripture  sets  forth  an  abso- 
lutely new  departure  that  Almighty  God  has 
taken  toward  the  children  of  men.  In  Natural 
Religion,  God  is  revealed  as  the  Maker,  and 


54  Butler 

the  Law-giver,  and  the  Judge  of  men  ;  as  our 
Father  also,  and  our  Friend.  But  how  glorious 
His  fatherhood  is,  and  how  blessed  His  friend- 
ship, the  Gospel  alone  has  revealed.  Natural 
Religion  in  its  highest  and  best  dispensation 
might  attain  to  tell  us  that  God  had  sent  forth 
His  Logos-Son  to  create,  and  to  enlighten, 
and  to  govern,  and  to  judge  the  world.  But 
no  man  ever  read  in  the  very  best  book  of 
Natural  Religion  that  God  so  loved  the  world 
as  to  make  His  Son  to  be  sin  for  us,  that  we 
might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him. 
But  instead  of  taking  up  and  pursuing  this  line 
of  thought,  Butler  turns  immediately  to  quite 
another  field  of  things  in  which  he  is  much 
more  at  home.  And  he  proceeds  to  draw  out 
and  to  illustrate  the  striking  contrast  between 
what  he  calls  moral  and  positive  duties.  No 
doubt  the  opportunities,  if  not  the  necessities, 
of  his  argument  offered  this  field  of  reflection 
to  Butler.  But  it  is  painfully  characteristic  of 
our  author  that  he  can  always  find  plenty  of 
room  for  purely  ethical  and  logical  discussions. 


Appreciation  55 

but  keeps  scrupulously  close  to  his  philosophical 
and  analogical  argument  as  often  as  he  comes 
into  the  neighbourhood  of  apostolical  and  evan- 
gelical truth.  "  In  reviewing  this  chapter," 
says  Dr.  Angus,  "  too  much  stress  cannot  be 
laid  on  the  principle  laid  down  by  Dr.  Chal- 
mers. Christianity  is  not  only  a  republication 
of  natural  religion,  with  added  truth,  but  the 
added  truth  is  adapted  to  the  condition  in 
which  natural  religion  leaves  us.  The  first 
without  the  second,  the  republication  without 
the  remedial  addition,  would  have  been  a 
message  of  terror  and  denunciation.  It  is  the 
Gospel  which  reconciles  all  difficulties ;  and 
which,  besides  adding  the  light  of  its  own 
manifestation,  resolves  all  the  doubts  and 
hushes  all  the  fears  which  natural  religion  had 
awakened."  At  the  same  time,  let  us  not  be 
tempted  to  make  little  of  the  immense  service 
Butler  has  done  for  us,  because  he  has  not  per- 
formed for  us  the  highest  service  of  all.  Let 
us  not  cast  Butler  to  the  moles  and  the  bats 
because  he  is  not  able  to  give  us  all  that  we 


56  Butler 

demand  of  him.  All  the  more  since  we  have 
the  full  truth  on  this  subject,  and  at  this  stage, 
in  Chalmers  and  Angus  and  many  others,  in 
correction  and  in  completion  of  Butler.  Let 
us  go  on  to  study,  with  all  due  attention  and 
profit,  those  remarkably  suggestive  chapters  on 
moral  and  positive  institutions  and  duties, 
thankful  for  the  great  services  Butler  here 
performs  to  us,  instead  of  uselessly  complaining 
because  of  the  absence  of  services  that,  to  his 
own  impoverishment,  he  was  not  able  to 
perform. 

In  these  days,  when  so  much  attention  is  being 
given  to  the  history  of  revelation — that  is  to  say 
to  the  sundry  times  and  divers  manners  in  which 
God  spake  unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets — 
Butler's  two  chapters  on  those  sundry  times 
and  divers  manners  are  intensely  interesting 
and  highly  instructive.  Butler  alone  could 
have  written  the  chapter  on  our  unfitness  to 
sit  in  judgment  as  to  when  and  how  God 
would  speak  to  the  children  of  men.  The 
whole  argument  at  this  point  is  most  enlighten- 


Appreciation  57 

ing  and  most  enlarging  to  the  mind  of  the 
reader.  And  then,  we  come  again  and  again 
on  passages  that  would  almost  seem  to  have 
been  written  in  anticipation  of  our  own  per- 
plexed and  anxious  day.  Such  passages  as  this  : 
"  Neither  this  obscurity,  nor  seeming  inaccuracy 
of  style,  nor  various  readings,  nor  early  disputes 
about  the  authors  of  particular  parts,  nor  any 
other  thing  of  the  like  kind,  though  they  had 
been  much  more  considerable  than  they  are, 
could  overthrow  the  authority  of  Scripture, 
unless  the  prophets,  the  apostles,  or  our  Lord 
Himself  had  promised  that  the  book  contain- 
ing the  Divine  revelation  should  be  secure 
from  those  things."  Butler's  whole  discussion 
on  Scripture  is  full  of  that  sanity  and  sobriety 
of  mind,  and  that  deep  and  reverent  wisdom, 
with  which  he  has  made  us  so  familiar  in  all 
his  previous  writings.  At  the  same  time,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  when  Butler  passes  on 
from  the  defence  of  revelation  to  the  exposi- 
tion of  the  contents  and  substance  of  revela- 
tion, he  by  no  means  shows  the  same  qualities 


58  Butler 

of  mind  as  heretofore,  nor  commands  the  same 
assent  and  admiration  from  all  his  readers  as 
heretofore.  All  the  remaining  chapters  of  the 
Analogy  are  full  of  the  finest  thoughts,  and 
the  most  fruitful  suggestions  ;  but,  as  a  whole, 
the  remainder  of  the  work  falls  very  much 
below  the  high  and  adequate  level  of  the  First 
Part.  Butler  has  no  equal  in  his  defence  of 
the  outworks  of  the  Christian  faith.  But  when 
he  passes  into  the  inner  sanctuary  itself,  he  no 
longer  commands  the  same  assent  and  admira- 
tion as  he  does  among  the  defences.  "  Butler," 
says  Chalmers,  "  is  like  one  who,  vpith  admir- 
able skill,  lays  down  the  distances  and  the 
directions  of  a  land  into  which  he  has  not 
travelled  very  far  himself."  "  But,"  adds 
Chalmers,  "  without  sitting  in  judgment  on  the 
personal  religion  of  Butler,  it  is  the  part  of  the 
Christian  world  to  ov^^n  their  deepest  obligations 
to  the  man  who  has  so  nobly  asserted  the 
authority  of  the  Word  of  God  over  all  the 
darkling  speculations  of  human  fancy,  and 
who  has  evinced  to  us,  by  the  truest  of  all 


Appreciation  59 

philosophy,  that  we  should  cast  down  every 
lofty  imagination  and  bring  all  our  thoughts 
into  the  captivity  of  its  obedience."  Dr.  John 
Cairns- — who,  his  biographer  tells  us,  read  the 
Analogy  regularly  once  a  year — writing  to  his 
sister  from  Stanhope  in  the  year  1873,  ^^7^  • 
"  Here,  doubtless,  the  Analogy  was  finally 
thought  out  and  adjusted  to  its  present  state. 
I  had  a  specimen  of  the  local  humour  when 
asking  a  young  farmer  what  I  should  see  from 
a  distant  point.  His  reply  was,  '  a  sight  of  fell, 
and  the  road.'  It  was  only  too  true.  For  I 
had  to  labour  on  through  the  fell  till  at  last  the 
ocean  rose  upon  the  view.  A  sight  of  fell,  but 
a  road  through  it,  and  a  grand  outlook  beyond, 
is  not  a  bad  image  of  Butler's  work." 

The  very  title-page  of  Butler's  great  book 
shows  the  immense  capaciousness  of  Butler's 
mind.  The  Constitution  of  Nature — how  vast 
a  subject  is  that  for  a  human  mind  to  attempt 
to  grasp  !  And  then,  the  Course  of  Nature 
— how  vast  a  subject  is  that  also  for  a  human 


6o 


Butler 


mind  to  attempt  to  trace  and  follow  out  ! 
And  then  to  take  up  both  Natural  and  Revealed 
Religion,  and  to  lay  both  those  great  fields 
of  Divine  truth  alongside  of  Nature,  both  in 
her  constitution  and  her  course — all  that  was 
surely  far  too  much  for  any  created  mind  to 
undertake.  And  yet  Butler  was  not  only  led 
to  undertake  all  that,  but  was  enabled  to  carry 
all  that  out  in  a  way  that  has  been  the  wonder 
and  the  praise  of  all  his  readers  ever  since. 
Never  had  a  book,  after  the  Bible  itself,  a 
more  capacious  title-page  than  the  Analogy,  and 
never  had  an  uninspired  book  a  more  complete 
success  in  what  it  undertook.  Butler  has 
never  had  sitting  at  his  feet  a  more  capacious- 
minded  scholar  than  Mr.  Gladstone.  And  this 
is  how  that  generous-hearted  and  grateful- 
hearted  man  speaks  about  the  capacious  mind 
of  his  master  :  "  The  argument  of  the  Analogy 
is  an  argument  perhaps  even  greater  than 
Butler  himself  was  aware.  In  opening  up  his 
argument,  which  in  my  judgment  stands  among 
the  masterpieces  of  the  human  mind,  Butler 


Appreciation  6i 

has  unfolded  to  us  the  entire  method  of  God's 
dealings  with  His  creatures ;  and  in  this  way 
the  argument  which  he  offers  us  is  as  wide  as 
those  dealings  themselves."  And  again  :  "It  is 
Butler  who,  more  than  any  other  writer,  opens 
to  us  the  one  all-pervading  scheme  upon  which 
Almighty  God  deals  with  His  creatures." 
And  again  :  "  Butler's  method  is  so  compre- 
hensive as  to  embrace  every  question  belonging 
to  the  relations  between  the  Deity  and  man." 
The  truth  is,  very  much  what  his  great  con- 
temporary Newton  is  in  the  material  world 
that  Butler  is  in  the  moral  world.  And  more 
than  once  Butler  as  good  as  acknowledges  the 
debt  he  owed  to  the  discoveries  of  his  great 
contemporary.  Dr.  Wace  carries  out  the 
parallel  between  Newton  and  Butler  in  a  very 
interesting  and  suggestive  way  in  his  lecture  on 
Butler  in  Typical  English  Churchmen. 

In  the  matter  of  Butler's  imagination  I  am 
not  only  alone  against  all  the  world,  but  also  at 
first  sight  against  Butler  himself.   For  he  never 


62 


Butler 


once  mentions  the  imagination  without  belittling 
it,  and  he  more  than  once  actually  vilifies  it,  to 
use  one  of  his  own  strong  words  about  another 
great  faculty  of  the  human  mind.  And 
Bagehot's  passages  on  this  subject  may  be 
taken  as  only  too  good  specimens  of  the  way 
that  Butler  has  been  taken  at  his  own  unfor- 
tunate valuation  in  the  matter  of  the  imagina- 
tion. For  that  able  essayist  actually  says,  and 
says  it  with  a  great  and  a  repeated  emphasis, 
that  Butler  is  wholly  wanting  in  imagination, 
that  he  is  wholly  deficient  in  the  visual  faculty, 
that  he  is  not  able  to  picture  particulars,  and 
that  no  instances  or  illustrations  occur  in  his 
writings.  Able  and  authoritative  as  Bagehot 
is,  I  must  be  permitted  to  say  that  I  cannot 
agree  with  him  in  all  that.  I  cannot  agree 
with  him  that  Butler  does  not  see  what  he  is 
writing  about,  and  does  not  let  his  reader  see 
what  he  is  reading  about.  Butler  does  not 
indeed  delay  in  his  great  task  to  expatiate 
pictorially  on  what  he  sees.  He  does  not  take 
time  in  his  high  argument  to  describe  dramati- 


Appreciation  63 

cally  and  dilate  eloquently  on  the  vast  visions 
that  pass  before  his  heaven-soaring  mind.  His 
imagination  does  not  come  out  in  purple 
patches  on  his  pages.  But  if  Butler  had  not 
himself  seen  the  great  things  of  nature,  and  of 
natural  and  revealed  religion,  with  his  own 
inward,  and  imaginative,  and  realising  eye,  he 
could  never  have  made  me  see  and  realise  them 
as  I,  for  one,  must  always  acknowledge  and 
rejoice  that  he  has  done.  "  Of  some  assistance 
to  apprehension,"  is  one  of  Butler's  far  too 
grudging,  and  far  too  ungrateful,  references  to 
a  faculty  of  his  own  mind,  which  he  employs 
continually  to  assist  his  own  apprehension  and 
that  of  his  readers.  Butler  ought  to  have  been 
as  scrupulous  not  to  vilify  or  undervalue 
imagination,  as  he  is  not  to  vilify  or  under- 
value reason,  since  imagination  is  the  only 
faculty  we  possess  in  this  life  that  can  be  to  us 
the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  and  the 
evidence  of  things  not  seen.  A  service  that 
both  Butler  and  all  his  readers  are  continually 
receiving  at  the  realising  and  illuminating  hands 


64  Butler 

of  the  imagination.  To  me,  at  any  rate,  let 
Butler  himself,  and  Bagehot,  and  all  Butler's 
other  critics,  say  what  they  will,  Butler  will 
always  rank,  if  not  with  the  great  masters  of 
the  dramatic  and  pictorial  imagination,  such  as 
Dante  and  Bunyan  and  Milton,  yet  with  those 
other  masterly  minds,  who  by  means  of  that 
same  noble  faculty,  exercised  in  another  way, 
have  made  me  vividly  realise  what  I  had 
hitherto  but  vaguely  heard  of,  and  who  have 
also  made  things  to  be  present  and  impressive 
to  me  which  had  hitherto  been  so  remote  as 
to  be  all  but  unreal.  "See  !"  exclaims  Maurice, 
"  how  he  throws  in  the  length  of  the  ages  and 
the  immensity  of  the  universe."  As  often  as 
Butler  is  brought  to  a  standstill  in  his  high 
argument  till  he  again  says  to  his  reader 
suppose,  suppose,  suppose — and  he  says  that 
in  some  of  his  chapters  in  every  second 
sentence — Butler  by  saying  that,  and  by  the 
way  he  goes  on  to  make  his  suppositions, 
summons  all  my  imagination  into  his  service, 
till  his  whole  high  argument  is  lighted  up  to 


Appreciation  65 

me  from  the  one  end  of  heaven  to  the  other. 
And  till  ever  after,  the  dry  light  of  Butler's 
own  reason  is  suffused  and  softened,  and  shed 
far  and  wide,  as  only  the  imagination  could 
suffuse  it,  and  soften  it,  and  shed  it  abroad. 
The  simple  truth  is,  as  Mr.  Gladstone  so 
regretfully  points  out,  there  is  a  serious  con- 
fusion of  language  on  Butler's  part  in  all  those 
passages  in  which  he  seems  to  us  to  vilify  the 
imagination.  For  it  is  not  against  the  im- 
agination proper  that  Butler  is  writing  at  all 
in  those  unfortunate  and  misleading  passages, 
says  Mr.  Gladstone,  but  it  is  against  "  an  un- 
bridled fancy,  an  intellectual  caprice,  and  an  ill- 
regulated  judgment."  All  which  things  are  as 
far  as  the  poles  asunder  from  the  proper  use  of 
the  imagination,  that  so  superb  faculty  of  the 
human  mind.  "  The  term  imagination  in 
Butler's  pages,"  so  Mr.  Gladstone  sums  up, 
"would  seem  to  be  a  misnomer."  I  will  be  bold 
to  add,  it  not  only  seems  to  be  a  misnomer,  but 
actually  is  such  a  fatal  misnomer  as  to  have 
misled  many  of  Butler's  readers,  and  drawn 

E 


66 


Butler 


them  wholly  away  from  the  due  recognition 
and  the  due  appreciation  of  a  divinely  given 
faculty  that  as  little  deserves  to  be  vilified  as 
either  the  reason  or  the  conscience  themselves. 
Dean  Church  alone  has  done  something  like 
justice  to  this  noble  endowment  of  Butler's 
own  mind.  "  That  was  the  feature  of  Butler's 
mind,"  says  the  Dean  in  his  brilliant  lecture, 
"  that  he  never  lost  hold  on  his  high  thoughts, 
and  never  let  custom  or  any  other  thing  close 
his  eyes  or  raise  a  mist  between  him  and  them. 
It  was  his  power,  the  greatest  perhaps  that 
he  had,  that  what  his  reason  told  him  was 
certain  and  true,  he  was  able  continually  to  see, 
and  feel,  and  imagine  to  be  true  and  real.  He 
had  the  power  of  faith."  And  again  :  "  These 
touches  of  imagination  and  feeHng  come  in  the 
midst  of  austere  argument  or  statement  ;  they 
come  in  naturally  and  unforced  ;  and  they 
give  us  a  momentary  glimpse,  the  more 
interesting  because  rare,  into  the  depths  of  a 
great  mind."  And  again  in  what  Mr.  Glad- 
stone calls  "  that  masterly  sermon  of  Dean 


Appreciation  67 

Church,"  "  there  are  passages  in  Butler,  when 
we  read  between  the  lines  of  his  words,  that 
at  first  sight  look  so  dry  and  commonplace, 
which  seem  to  open  a  glimpse  of  the  very 
foundations  of  the  world  and  nature."  And 
Professor  Alexander  Bain,  in  a  striking  passage 
in  his  Study  of  Character,  says  on  this  same 
subject :  "The  many  observations  scattered  over 
Butler's  writings  that  have  been  esteemed  for 
their  profundity,  owe  their  force  to  the  flash  of 
some  hidden  identity  that  gives  a  new  aspect 
to  an  old  problem.  Remove  from  Butler's 
mind  his  foremost  end,  which  is  to  obtain 
truth  ;  give  him  the  local  susceptibilities  to 
colour  and  form,  to  words,  cadence,  and 
metre ;  and  the  same  reach  of  the  identifying 
faculty  would  have  emerged  in  a  poet." 

It  is  a  great  lesson  in  English  composition 
to  read  what  has  been  written  first  and  last 
about  Butler's  style.  And  the  best  thing  that 
has  ever  been  said  on  that  subject  was  what 
Butler  said  himself.    In  the  Preface  to  the 


68 


Butler 


second  edition  of  his  Rolls  Sermons  he  replied 
in  these  words  to  the  fault  that  had  been 
found  with  his  style  of  writing, — "  It  must 
be  acknowledged  that  some  of  the  following 
discourses  are  very  abstruse  and  difficult ;  or, 
if  you  please,  obscure.  But  I  must  take  leave 
to  add  that  those  alone  are  judges  whether  or 
no  this  is  a  fault  who  are  judges  whether  or  no 
and  how  far  it  might  have  been  avoided. 
Those  only  who  will  be  at  the  trouble  to 
understand  what  is  here  said,  and  to  see  how 
far  the  things  here  insisted  upon  and  not  other 
things,  might  have  been  put  in  a  plainer 
manner  :  which  I  am  very  far  from  asserting 
they  could  not.  Confusion  and  perplexity 
in  writing  is  indeed  without  excuse,  because 
any  one  may,  if  he  pleases,  know  whether  he 
understands  and  sees  through  what  he  is 
about.  And  it  is  unpardonable  for  a  man  to 
lay  his  thoughts  before  others  when  he  is 
conscious  that  he  himself  does  not  know 
whereabouts  he  is,  or  how  the  matter  before 
him  stands.    It  is  coming  abroad  in  disorder. 


Appreciation  69 

which  he  ought  to  be  dissatisfied  to  find  him- 
self in  at  home."  And  then  at  the  end  of 
his  extraordinarily  ably  written  preface  he 
puts  in  this  claim  for  himself,  that  at  any  rate 
he  has  written  his  sermons  "with  simplicity 
and  earnestness  of  purpose."  Take  the  follow- 
ing as  so  many  most  interesting  specimens  of 
the  debate  that  has  been  held  over  Butler's 
style,  John  Byrom,  stenographer  and  poet, 
and  William  Law's  Boswell,  has  this  in  his 
Journal.  "Some,"  says  Byrom,  "thought 
Butler  a  little  too  little  vigorous,  and  wished 
he  would  have  spoken  more  earnestly."  Sir 
James  Mackintosh,  who  averred  that  he  owed 
all  his  philosophy  to  Butler,  at  the  same  time 
allows  himself  to  call  the  Rolls  Sermons  "  those 
deep  and  dark  dissertations."  And  he  goes 
on  to  say  that  "  no  thinker  so  great  was  ever 
so  bad  a  writer."  On  the  other  hand,  Bartlett, 
Butler's  best  biographer,  has  this  on  the 
matter  in  hand  :  "  We  have  heard  persons 
talk  of  the  obscurity  of  Bishop  Butler's  style, 
and  lament  that  his  book  was  not  rewritten 


70  Butler 

by  some  more  luminous  master  of  language. 
We  have  always  suspected  that  such  critics 
know  very  little  about  the  Analogy.  We 
would  have  no  sacrilegious  hand  touch  it. 
To  touch  it  would  be  like  officious  meddling 
with  a  well-considered  move  at  chess.  The 
Analogy  is  a  work  carefully  and  closely  packed 
up  out  of  twenty  years'  hard  thinking.  It 
must  have  filled  folios  had  its  illustrious  author 
taken  less  time  to  concoct  it  ;  for  never  was 
there  a  stronger  instance  of  the  truth  of  the 
observation,  that  it  requires  far  more  time  to 
make  a  small  book  than  a  large  one."  And 
further  on  he  adds  :  "  The  style  of  Butler  has, 
we  think,  been  condemned  undeservedly.  It 
certainly  is  not  formed  to  anything  like 
Ciceronian  harmony  and  elegance ;  but  it 
seldom  offends  the  ear,  or  violates  the  purity 
of  the  English  idiom."  "  After  all,"  says 
Fitzgerald,  one  of  Butler's  best  editors,  "the 
faults  of  his  style  are  greatly  overstated  by 
many  of  his  critics.  It  may  not  be  polished  ; 
but  it  is  good,  plain,  downright  English,  the 


Appreciation  71 

words  are  proper  for  his  purpose,  and  they  are 
generally  put  in  their  proper  places.  Nay, 
though  it  would  be  absurd  to  claim  for 
Butler's  general  style  the  artful  simplicity  of 
Addison's  elegance,  the  brilliant  perspicuity  of 
Berkeley,  or  even  the  plain  compactness  of 
Swift,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  there 
occur,  here  and  there,  passages  of  pure, 
musical,  Saxon-English  that  will  not  suffer 
from  a  comparison  with  any  of  those  great 
models."  "  Butler's  style,"  admits  Dean 
Goulburn,  "  though  it  has  a  massive  grandeur 
and  solidity  in  it,  is  yet  anything  but  attractive 
to  the  general  reader."  "Butler's  words," 
says  Maurice,  "  often  become  feeble  and  con- 
tradictory, because  he  cannot  write  what  is 
struggling  within  him."  "  A  great  thinker, 
but  a  poor  writer,"  says  Bagehot.  "  It  is 
probable,  that  if  Butler  hated  anything,  he 
hated  his  pen.  Composition  is  pleasant  work 
for  men  of  ready  words,  fine  ears,  and  thick- 
coming  illustrations.  But  Butler,  so  far  from 
having  the  pleasures  of  eloquence,  had  not 


72  Butler 

even  the  comfort  of  perspicuity.  In  some 
places  the  mode  of  statement  is  even  stupid  : 
it  seems  selected  to  occasion  a  difficulty." 
And  then  Bagehot  sums  up  against  Butler  in 
these  words  :  "  No  writer  of  equal  eminence 
is  so  defective  as  Butler.  His  thoughts,  if 
you  take  each  one  singly,  seem  to  lose  a  good 
deal  from  the  feeble  and  hesitating  manner  in 
which  they  are  stated.  And  yet,  if  you  read 
any  considerable  portion  of  his  writings,  you 
become  sensible  of  a  strong  disinclination  to 
disagree  with  him."  And  again,  and  much 
more  generously  in  another  book  :  "  There 
was  not  a  spark  of  the  littleness  of  literary 
ambition  about  Butler.  There  is  nothing 
light  in  Butler  ;  he  leaves  to  others  all 
amusing  skirmishing  and  superficial  writing. 
In  Butler  all  is  grave,  serious,  and  essential. 
Nothing  else  would  be  characteristic  of 
Butler."  "  The  admirable  arrangement  of  the 
Analogy^''  says  Mark  Pattison,  "  is  all  its 
own.  Its  closely  packed  and  carefully  fitted 
order  speaks  of  many  years'  contrivance.  Its 


Appreciation  73 

substance  is  the  thought  of  a  whole  age,  not 
barely  compiled,  but  each  separate  thought 
reconsidered  and  digested.  Every  brick  in 
the  building  has  been  rung  before  it  was 
relaid,  and  replaced  in  its  true  relation  to  the 
complex  and  various  whole."  "The  style  of 
Butler,"  says  Mr.  Gladstone,  "  has  been  made 
largely  responsible  for  the  difficulties  of  his 
subject,  but  those  who  might  rewrite  one  of 
his  pages  would  find  it  more  difficult  than  they 
suppose  to  improve  the  style  without  im- 
pairing the  substance."  And  in  direct  con- 
tradiction of  one  of  Bagehot's  charges  against 
Butler's  style,  Mr.  Gladstone  proceeds  :  "  In 
his  illustrations  Butler  is  particularly  happy ; 
and  upon  the  whole,  in  his  case,  and  also 
in  that  of  Aristotle,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
style  and  the  substance  cannot  be  parted." 
And  then,  if  "  a  consciousness  of  what  has 
preceded  and  what  is  to  follow  makes  a 
perfect  style,"  as  Jowett  in  his  introduction 
to  the  Laws  says  it  does,  then  Butler's 
rank  as  a  writer  is  secure.    For  never  was 


74  Butler 

there  a  more  regular  plan  laid  down  for 
any  book,  and  never  had  any  book  more 
consciousness  of  what  had  preceded  and 
what  was  to  follow.  Canon  Spooner  also, 
Butler's  latest  biographer,  has  this  in  his 
excellent  little  book  :  "  Is  the  charge  of 
obscurity  that  is  brought  against  Butler  well 
deserved  ?  On  such  a  matter  the  reading 
public  is  the  only  judge.  A  writer  whom 
most,  even  intelligent,  readers  find  obscure, 
is  obscure.  Tried  by  this  test,  Butler  will 
almost  certainly  stand  convicted.  But  the 
obscurity  that  exists  is  not  the  obscurity  of  a 
loose  and  confused  thinker.  There  was  no- 
thing loose  or  confused  in  Butler's  mind  :  quite 
the  reverse.  The  difficulty  of  the  style  arises 
from  the  extreme  closeness  and  continuity  of 
the  thoughts.  Still  more  from  the  caution, 
many-sidedness,  and  conscientiousness  of  the 
writer  which  would  leave  no  aspect  of  the 
question  unprovided  for,  no  possible  objection 
which  might  be  taken  unmet,  no  necessary 
limitation  unexpressed,  no  possible  misunder- 


Appreciation  75 

standing  of  his  meaning  unguarded  against. 
A  man  writing  in  such  a  spirit,  particularly 
a  man  of  Butler's  anxious  and  even  morbidly 
conscientious  temperament,  could  scarcely  attain 
to  a  facile  and  unlaboured  style.  Certainly 
Butler  would  have  been  less  himself  had  his 
style  been  less  laboured  :  with  him  even  more 
than  with  most  men,  the  style  is  the  man." 

It  is  a  study  in  literary  criticism,  as  well  as 
in  style,  to  ponder  these  various  opinions,  and 
to  consider  them  in  relation  to  their  respective 
authors,  as  well  as  in  relation  to  Butler's  style. 
It  is  an  excellent  exercise  in  criticism  and  in 
composition  to  watch  in  what,  and  how  far, 
his  critics  coincide  with  one  another,  and  to 
discover  how  they  less,  any  single  one  of 
them,  say  the  whole  truth  about  Butler,  than 
make  each  his  own  contribution  to  the  whole 
truth.  For  myself,  I  will  say  in  one  word 
that  the  more  I  read  Butler,  and  the  better  I 
understand  him,  the  more  I  enjoy  his  peculiar 
style.  His  style  is  what  it  is,  to  employ  one 
of  his  own  repeated  expressions,  and  I  would 


76  Butler 

not  have  it  other  than  it  is.  And  I  most 
heartily  subscribe  to  what  Bishop  Steere  says 
so  well  on  this  same  subject  :  "  In  truth  the 
greatest  beauty  in  any  author's  style  consists 
in  its  appropriateness  to  express  his  meaning. 
And  thus  it  is  that  careful  students  of  Butler's 
works  generally  come,  in  the  end,  to  have  a 
sort  of  relish  for  his  peculiar  style."  I  think 
that  is  a  very  happy  expression  of  Steere's. 
"  A  sort  of  relish  "  exactly  describes  my  own 
enjoyment  of  Butler's  peculiar  style.  For 
there  is  a  certain  dry,  nutty,  oaten  aroma  that 
comes  off  Butler's  page  as  I  read  it ;  not  only 
not  disagreeable,  but  positively  healing,  and 
restoring,  and  strengthening.  Till,  what  with 
his  style  and  what  with  his  substance,  with  all 
his  limitations — and  they  are  neither  few  nor 
small — Butler  will  always  remain  one  of  the 
few  first-class  authors  in  the  whole  world  to 
me. 

Butler  is  universally  acknowledged  to  be  the 
most  thoughtful  of  all  our  English  theologians 


Appreciation  77 

and  moralists.  Many  English  theologians,  and 
moralists,  and  preachers,  could  be  named  who 
far  excelled  Butler  in  other  things.  Many  were 
more  learned,  many  were  more  eloquent,  many 
were  far  more  scriptural,  and  consequently 
far  more  evangelical.  But  Butler  stands 
alone  in  his  own  sheer  power  of  thought, 
and  in  his  amazing  power  of  awakening 
thought  in  his  readers.  Hooker  was  far  more 
learned  and  far  more  evangelical.  Taylor  was 
far  more  oceanically  read,  and  his  eloquence 
was  without  parallel.  Edwards's  mind  was 
far  more  powerful  than  Butler's  mind  was 
naturally,  and  it  was  simply  seraphically  sanc- 
tified. While  the  great  Puritans  far  eclipsed 
Butler  in  the  apostolicity  and  spirituality  of 
their  ministry.  But  for  plunging  his  readers 
into  the  greatest  depths  of  thought,  Butler 
excels  them  all.  Butler  was  like  Pascal  in 
this,  that  he  was  not  at  all  a  wide  reader,  but 
was  one  of  the  princeliest  of  thinkers.  It  was 
simply  Butler's  own  thoughtfulness,  and  his 
power  of  producing  thoughtfulness,  that  has 


78  Butler 

called  forth  such  extraordinary  appreciations 
and  acknowledgments  as  these  :  "  The  most 
original  and  profound  work  extant  in  any 
language  on  the  philosophy  of  religion,"  says 
Sir  James  Mackintosh.  "  I  could  not  write 
on  this  or  on  any  other  kindred  subject,"  says 
Bishop  O'Brien,  "  without  a  consciousness  that 
I  was  either  directly  or  indirectly  borrowing 
from  Butler."  "  I  have  derived  greater  aid 
from  the  views  and  reasonings  of  Butler,"  says 
Dr.  Chalmers,  "  than  I  have  been  able  to  find 
besides  in  the  whole  range  of  our  extant 
authorship."  "  I  am  more  indebted  to  Butler's 
writings  than  I  am  to  any  other  uninspired 
author,"  says  Bishop  Kaye.  "  That  great  and 
generative  thinker,"  says  Maurice.  "  The 
greatest  name,"  says  Newman,  "in  the  Anglican 
Church."  And  writing  about  books  to  a  lady, 
Newman  says  :  "  I  think  you  will  gain  great 
benefit  on  the  whole  subject  of  ethics  and 
religion  from  Butler's  Analogy.  It  is  a  very 
deep  work,  and  while  it  requires,  it  will  repay 
your  attention."     It  is  no  detraction  from 


Appreciation  79 

Newman's  own  great  fertility  of  mind  to  say 
that  the  reader  of  Butler  and  of  Newman 
continually  comes  on  sentences,  and  clauses  of 
sentences,  in  Butler  that  have  been  the  seed  of 
some  of  Newman's  most  famous  sermons. 
And  the  same  thing  may  be  said  of  not  a  few 
of  the  sermons  of  Butler's  philosophic  and 
eloquent  Irish  namesake,  as  also  of  some  of  the 
best  of  Mozley's  sermons,  who  has  been  called 
the  Butler  of  the  nineteenth  century.  One  of 
the  most  original  and  impressive  preachers  I 
ever  sat  under,  David  White  of  Airlie,  had 
Butler  always  on  his  desk  beside  his  Bible, 
and  had  little  else.  Plato's  discourses  were 
so  overladen  with  thought,  that  when  he 
looked  up  after  finishing  one  of  the  longest 
and  deepest  of  them,  all  his  audience  had 
escaped:  only  Aristotle  was  left  in  the  lecture- 
room.  So  Plutarch  tells  us.  And  I  would 
not  have  wondered  to  have  been  told  by 
Byrom  that  when  Butler  had  finished  some 
of  his  Rolls  Sermons^  there  was  no  one  left  in 
the  chapel  but  the  Master  of  the  Rolls  and 


8o 


Butler 


William  Law  in  for  the  forenoon  from  Putney. 
"  The  pain  of  attending "  is  one  of  Butler's 
own  admissions  about  his  sermons.  But  then, 
all  the  pain  is  well  repaid. 

"  A  more  than  ordinary  depth  of  thought 
produces  the  melancholy  temperament,"  says 
Jacob  Behmen.  And  Butler's  deep  melancholy 
is  one  of  his  outstanding  characteristics,  both 
as  a  preacher  and  a  philosopher.  Passages 
like  these  occur  continually  in  his  writings. 
"  The  infinite  disorders  of  this  world."  "  This 
world  is  a  mere  scene  of  distraction."  "  In- 
stead of  this  world  being  what  it  was 
intended  to  be,  a  discipline  of  virtue,  the 
generality  of  men  make  it  a  discipline  of 
vice.  It  is  a  state  of  apostasy,  wickedness, 
and  ruin.  Men  are  depraved  creatures,  who 
want  to  be  renewed."  "  If  the  discoveries  of 
men  of  research  tend  in  any  way  to  render 
life  less  unhappy  than  it  is,  then  they  are  most 
usefully  employed."  Lamentations  like  these 
come  out  of  the  Sermons  and  out  of  the 


Appreciation  8i 

Analogy  continually,  till  to  say  Butler  is  to 
say  melancholy.  At  the  same  time,  Butler's 
melancholy  is  more  a  philosophical  and  a 
speculative  melancholy  than  a  religious  and 
an  experimental  melancholy.  There  is  a  far 
deeper,  a  far  more  bitter,  and  a  far  more 
inconsolable,  melancholy  than  is  that  melan- 
choly to  which  Butler,  with  all  his  depth  of 
thought,  has  ever  given  voice.  There  is  a 
cup,  "  bitterer  to  drink  than  blood,"  that 
Butler  would  seem  scarcely  ever  to  have  tasted. 
So  far  as  his  Analogy^  or  his  sermons,  or  even 
his  prayers  go,  he  would  seem  to  have  had 
little  or  no  experimental  acquaintance  with  the 
unspeakable  melancholy  of  such  spiritual  men  as 
Behmen,  and  Pascal,  and  Foster- — to  keep  to 
some  of  the  men  of  deepest  thought  that  have 
ever  lived.  It  is  always  this  fallen,  and  corrupt, 
and  depraved  world  that  is  the  source  of 
Butler's  melancholy.  It  is  their  own  corrupt 
and  depraved  and  hopeless  hearts  that  is  the 
source  of  the  far  deeper  melancholy  of  such 
men  as  have  been  named  above.    Butler  is  a 

F 


82 


Butler 


great  "  melancholian,"  but,  all  the  same,  his 
great  melancholy  is  but  philosophical,  and 
speculative,  and  economical  :  whereas  the 
melancholy  of  Behmen,  and  Pascal,  and  Foster 
is  spiritual,  and  personal,  and  experimental, 
and  inconsolable. 

Under  the  head  of  his  mental  qualities 
Mr.  Gladstone  discusses  Butler's  measure,  his 
strength  of  tissue,  his  courage,  his  questionable 
theses,  his  imagination,  and  his  originality. 
All  students  of  Butler  should  be  sure  not 
to  miss  what  that  great  statesman  has  to  say 
about  the  mental  qualities  of  his  revered  master. 
Contenting  myself  with  recommending  Glad- 
stone's third  volume  to  all  students  of  Butler — 
and  I  may  add  to  all  students  of  Gladstone 
himself — I  pass  on  to  take  some  notice  of  what 
is  by  far  the  most  serious  complaint  that  has 
ever  been  made  against  Butler.  That  is  to 
say,  his  extraordinary  deficiency  in  apostolical 
and  evangelical  truth.  Now,  that  complaint  is 
so  serious,  and  is  so  fundamental,  that  it  must 


Appreciation  83 

be  made  by  me  in  the  words  of  one  who 
had  both  the  ability,  and  the  courage,  and 
the  loyalty  to  truth,  to  make  it.  Dr.  Chalmers 
shall  speak  for  all  those  who  agree  with  him  in 
his  immense  regret  concerning  Butler's  religion. 
Whether  in  praise  or  in  blame  of  Butler,  as  I 
have  already  said,  I  like  to  read  Dr.  Chalmers 
above  all  Butler's  other  editors  and  com- 
mentators. There  is  nothing  to  my  mind  to 
compare  with  Chalmers's  lectures  on  the 
Analogy.  That  great  man  is  so  reverential  to 
Butler  ;  he  is  so  full  of  noble  acknowledgment 
of  indebtedness  to  his  great  master  ;  and  he  is 
so  eloquent  and  impressive  in  expounding  him. 
Let  Dr.  Chalmers  therefore  speak  on  this  dis- 
tressing subject.  "  We  fear,"  says  Chalmers 
in  his  fourth  chapter,  "  that  Butler  here  makes 
the  first,  though  not  the  only,  exhibition  that 
occurs  in  his  work,  of  his  meagre  and  moderate 
theology.  Sound  as  his  general  views  were  on 
what  might  be  termed  the  philosophy  of  re- 
ligion, this  formed  no  security  against  the 
errors  of  a  lax  and  superficial  creed  on  certain 


84  Butler 

of  its  specific  doctrines."  And  again  :  "  It 
were  great  and  unwarrantable  presumption  to 
decide  on  the  personal  Christianity  of  Butler, 
but  I  think  it  but  fair  to  warn  you  that  up  and 
down  throughout  the  volume  there  do  occur 
the  symptoms  of  a  heart  not  thoroughly  evan- 
gelised." "  I  have  already,"  says  Chalmers  in 
another  place,  "  given  repeated  intimation  that, 
viewed  as  a  Christian  composition,  I  do  not 
regard  Butler's  book  as  being  sufficiently  im- 
pregnated with  the  sal  evangelicum,  and  that 
even  his  own  principles  are  not  fully  and 
practically  carried  out.  Butler  is  like  one  who, 
with  admirable  skill,  lays  down  the  distances 
and  the  directions  of  a  land  into  which  he  has 
not  travelled  very  far  himself."  Let  any 
careful  student  read  Butler's  Dissertation  on 
the  Nature  of  Virtue,  and  then  let  him  read 
Jonathan  Edwards's  treatise  on  the  same 
subject,  and  he  will  see  for  himself  what  it  is 
that  Dr.  Chalmers  complains  of  when  he  says 
that  Butler  is  so  afraid  or  so  incapable  of  be- 
coming evangelical  that  he  will  not  even  follow 


Appreciation  85 

his  own  principles  fully  and  practically  out. 
Butler  continually  confines  himself  to  the  barely 
ethical,  even  when  his  subject  claims  to  become 
spiritual.  He  will  abide  rigidly  and  severely 
philosophical  even  when,  on  every  ground,  he 
should  rise  to  be  apostolical  and  evangelical. 
But  he  never  does  so  rise  :  never  so  much  as 
once.  And  thus  it  is  that  there  is  a  height  and 
a  depth,  a  fragrance,  a  sweetness,  and  a  beauty 
about  all  Edwards's  ethical  work,  of  which 
Butler's  very  best  work  is  wholly  and  blame- 
fully  devoid.  He  defends  himself,  and  his  out- 
and-out  eulogists  defend  him,  on  the  plea  that 
he  is  always  arguing,  not  on  his  own  principles, 
but  on  the  principles  of  the  deists,  who  were 
his  opponents.  But  Edwards  argues  not  less 
effectually  because  he  lets  his  great  subject 
carry  both  him  and  his  readers  away  up  to  its 
native  heavens.  Edwards  is  only  the  more 
genuinely  and  profoundly  philosophical  that 
he  is  so  seraphically  spiritual ;  and  only  the 
more  truly  and  convincingly  ethical  that  he  is 
so  Pauline  in  the  grace  and  truth  of  his  philo- 


86 


Butler 


sophy  as  well  as  his  theology.  Wesley's  re- 
port of  his  interview  with  Butler  is  humiliating 
reading.  And  when  it  is  read  alongside  of 
Chalmers's  lectures  on  Butler,  it  is  absolutely 
conclusive  as  to  Butler's  utter  lack  of  sympathy 
with  apostolic  and  evangelic  preaching,  even 
when  he  could  not  but  see  the  miracles  that 
such  preaching  was  working  in  his  own  diocese. 
Mr.  Gladstone  is  driven  to  think  that  the 
interview  between  the  Bishop  and  the  great 
Gospel  preacher  cannot  be  correctly  reported 
in  Wesley's  Journal.  I  wish  I  could  believe 
that.  For,  with  all  his  shortcomings  on  the 
most  important  of  all  matters,  I  love  and 
honour  Butler  more  than  I  can  tell.  The  truth 
is,  with  all  his  greatness,  Butler  falls  far  short 
of  the  greatest.  Many  an  author,  many  a 
preacher,  many  an  unlettered  believer,  who 
was  not  talented  enough  to  read  what  Butler 
had  written,  could  have  taken  him  and  taught 
him  the  way  of  God  more  perfectly,  as  Aquila 
and  Priscilla  taught  Apollos.  It  is  a  mystery 
to  me  how  such  a  deep-seeing  man,  and  such  a 


Appreciation  87 

fearless  and  honest  man,  and  such  a  serious- 
minded  man  as  Butler  was  could  have  lived 
and  died  contented  with  sucli  an  emasculated 
and  meagre  gospel  as  that  of  the  Sermons  and 
the  Analogy.  It  would  be  a  mystery  did  we 
not  see  the  same  mystery  every  day.  But  we 
have  only  too  good  evidence  that  Butler  did 
not  either  live  or  die  contented.  As  to  his 
death,  a  delightful  narrative  is  given  of  the 
Bishop's  last  moments,  a  narrative  that  carries 
its  truth  on  the  face  of  it,  and  a  narrative  we 
would  not  have  wanted  for  anything.  When 
Butler  lay  on  his  deathbed  he  called  for  his 
chaplain  and  said  to  him  :  "  Though  I  have 
endeavoured  to  avoid  sin,  and  to  please  God 
to  the  utmost  of  my  power,  yet,  from  the 
consciousness  of  perpetual  infirmities,  I  am 
still  afraid  to  die."  "  My  lord,"  said  the 
chaplain,  "  you  have  forgotten  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  a  Saviour."  "True,"  said  Butler, 
"  but  how  shall  I  know  that  He  is  a  Saviour 
for  me.''  "  "  My  lord,  it  is  written,  '  Him  that 
conieth  unto  Me,  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out.'  " 


88 


Butler 


"  True,"  said  Butler,  "  and  I  am  surprised  that 
though  I  have  read  that  Scripture  a  thousand 
times  over,  I  never  felt  its  virtue  till  this 
moment.    And  now  I  die  happy." 

"A  mighty  prelate  on  his  deathbed  lay, 

Revolving  the  dread  themes  of  life  and  death 
And  their  stupendous  issues,  with  dismay. 

His  marvellous  powers  nigh  quenched.    '  My  lord,' 
one  saith, 

'  Hast  thou  forgotten  how  Christ  came  to  be 

A  Saviour?'    'Nay,'  the  bishop  made  reply, 
'How  i'lnow  I  He's  a  Saviour  unto  ar?' 

The  chaplain  paused,  then  answered  thoughtfully: 
"'Lo,  him  that  cometh  unto  Me,"  Christ  said, 

"  I  will  in  nowise  cast  out,"  need  we  more  r' 
The  bishop  slowly  raised  his  dying  head : 

'I've  read  a  thousand  times  that  Scripture  o'er. 
Nor  felt  its  truth  till  now  I  near  the  tomb; 

It  is  enough,  O  mighty  Christ,  I  come.'  " 


BUTLER'S  BEST  PASSAGES 


BUTLER'S  BEST  PASSAGES 


ON  GOD 

Our  whole  nature  leads  us  to  ascribe  all 
moral  perfection  to  God,  and  to  deny  all 
imperfection  of  Him.  And  this  will  for  ever 
be  a  practical  proof  of  His  moral  character,  to 
such  as  will  consider  what  a  practical  proof  is  ; 
because  it  is  the  voice  of  God  speaking  in  us. 
— Angus,  p.  lo. 

If  we  are  constituted  such  sort  of  creatures, 
as  from  our  very  nature  to  feel  certain  affec- 
tions or  movements  of  mind  upon  the  sight  or 
contemplation  of  the  meanest  inanimate  part 
of  the  creation,  for  the  flowers  of  the  field  have 
their  beauty,  certainly  there  must  be  somewhat 
due  to  Him  Himself,  who  is  the  Author  and 
Cause  of  all  things,  who  is  more  intimately 

91 


92        Butler's  Best  Passages 

present  to  us  than  anything  else  can  be,  and 
with  whom  we  have  a  nearer  and  more  constant 
intercourse  than  we  can  have  with  any  creature. 
There  must  be  some  movements  of  mind  and 
heart  which  correspond  to  His  perfections,  or 
of  which  those  perfections  are  the  natural 
object. — Angus,  p.  354. 

Reverence,  ambition  of  His  love  and  appro- 
bation, delight  in  the  hope  or  consciousness  of 
it,  come  likewise  into  this  definition  of  the  love 
of  God,  because  He  is  the  natural  object  of  all 
those  affections  or  movements  of  mind,  as 
really  as  He  is  the  object  of  the  affection 
which  is  in  the  strictest  sense  called  love  ;  and 
all  of  them  equally  rest  in  Him  as  their  end. 
—Angus,  p.  499. 

Nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  an  infinite 
Being  may  himself  be,  if  he  pleases,  the  supply 
to  all  the  capacities  of  our  nature.  All  the 
common  enjoyments  of  life  are  from  the 
faculties  he  hath  endued  us  with,  and  the 


Butler's  Best  Passages  93 

objects  he  hath  made  suitable  to  them.  He 
may  himself  be  to  us  infinitely  more  than  all 
these;  he  may  be  to  us  all  that  we  want.  As 
our  understanding  can  contemplate  itself,  and 
our  affections  be  exercised  upon  themselves  by 
reflection,  so  may  each  be  employed  in  the 
same  manner  upon  any  other  mind  ;  and  since 
the  Supreme  Mind,  the  Author  and  Cause  of 
all  things,  is  the  higliest  possible  object  to 
himself,  he  may  be  an  adequate  supply  to 
all  the  faculties  of  our  souls,  a  subject  to  our 
understanding,  and  an  object  to  our  affections. 
—Angus,  p.  513. 

Words,  to  be  sure,  are  wanting  upon  this 
subject  :  to  say  that  everything  of  grace  and 
beauty  throughout  the  whole  of  Nature, 
everything  excellent  and  amiable  shared  in 
differently  lower  degrees  by  the  whole  crea- 
tion, meet  in  the  Author  and  Cause  of  all 
things  ;  this  is  an  inadequate  and  perhaps 
improper  way  of  speaking  of  the  Divine 
Nature,  but  it  is  manifest  that  absolute  recti- 


94        Butler's  Best  Passages 

tude,  the  perfection  of  being,  must  be  in  all 
senses  and  in  every  respect  the  highest  object 
to  the  mind. — Angus,  p.  51 4. 

Now,  as  our  capacities  of  perception  improve, 
we  shall  have,  perhaps  by  some  faculty  entirely 
new,  a  perception  of  God's  presence  with  us 
in  a  nearer  and  stricter  way  ;  since  it  is  certain 
He  is  more  intimately  present  with  us,  than 
anything  else  can  be.  Proof  of  the  existence 
and  presence  of  any  being  is  quite  different 
from  the  immediate  perception,  the  conscious- 
ness of  it.  What  then  will  be  the  joy  of 
heart  which  His  presence,  and  the  light  of 
His  countenance,  who  is  the  life  of  the  Uni- 
verse, will  inspire  good  men  with,  when  they 
shall  have  a  sensation,  that  He  is  the  Sustainer 
of  their  being,  that  they  exist  in  Him  ;  when 
they  shall  feel  His  influence  to  cheer  and 
enliven  and  support  their  frame,  in  a  manner 
of  which  we  have  now  no  conception He 
will  be  in  a  literal  sense  their  strength  and 
their  portion  for  ever. 


Butler's  Best  Passages  95 

When  we  speak  of  things  so  much  above 
our  comprehension,  as  the  employment  and 
happiness  of  a  future  state,  doubtless  it  behoves 
us  to  speak  with  all  modesty  and  distrust  of 
ourselves.  But  the  Scripture  represents  the 
happiness  of  that  state  under  the  notions  of 
seeing  God,  seeing  Him  as  He  is,  knowing  as 
we  are  known,  and  seeing  face  to  face.  These 
words  are  not  general  or  undetermined,  but 
express  a  particular  determinate  happiness.  And 
I  will  be  bold  to  say,  that  nothing  can  account 
for,  or  come  up  to,  these  expressions,  but  only 
this,  that  God  Himself  will  be  an  object  to 
our  faculties,  that  He  Himself  will  be  our 
happiness  ;  as  distinguished  from  the  enjoy- 
ments of  the  present  state  which  seem  to  arise, 
not  immediately  from  Him  but  from  the 
objects  He  has  adapted  to  give  us  delight. — 
Angus,  p.  516. 

ON    THE   LOVE   OF  GOD 

By  the  love  of  God  I  would  understand  all 
those  regards,  all  those  affections  of  mind 


g6        Butler's  Best  Passages 

which  are  due  immediately  to  Him  from  such 
a  creature  as  man,  and  which  rest  in  Him  as 
their  end.  As  this  does  not  include  servile 
fear,  so  neither  will  any  other  regards,  how 
reasonable  soever,  which  respect  anything  out 
of  or  besides  the  perfection  of  the  Divine 
nature  come  into  consideration  here.  But  all 
fear  is  not  excluded,  because  His  displeasure 
is  itself  the  natural  proper  object  of  fear. 
Reverence,  ambition  of  His  love  and  approba- 
tion, delight  in  the  hope  or  consciousness  of  it, 
come  Hkewise  into  this  definition  of  the  love 
of  God,  because  He  is  the  natural  object  of  all 
those  affections  or  movements  of  mind,  as 
really  as  He  is  the  object  of  the  affection 
which  is  in  the  strictest  sense  called  love  ;  and 
all  of  them  equally  rest  in  Him  as  their  end. 
And  they  may  all  be  understood  to  be  implied 
in  these  words  of  our  Saviour,  without  putting 
any  force  upon  them  ;  for  he  is  speaking  of 
the  love  of  God  and  our  neighbours  as  con- 
taining the  whole  of  piety  and  virtue. — Angus, 
p.  499. 


Butler's  Best  Passages  97 

ON  SCRIPTURE 

The  general  design  of  Scripture,  which  con- 
tains in  it  this  revelation,  thus  considered  as 
historical,  may  be  said  to  be,  to  give  us  an 
account  of  the  world,  in  this  one  single  view 
as  God's  world  :  by  which  it  appears  essentially 
distinguished  from  all  other  books,  so  far  as  I 
have  found,  except  such  as  are  copied  from  it. 
— Angus,  p.  272. 

Those  who  will  thoroughly  examine  into  reve- 
lation will  find  it  worth  remarking,  that  there 
are  several  ways  of  arguing,  which,  though  just 
with  regard  to  other  writings,  are  not  applic- 
able to  Scripture,  at  least  not  to  the  prophetic 
parts  of  it.  We  cannot  argue,  for  instance, 
that  this  cannot  be  the  sense  or  intent  of  such 
a  passage  of  Scripture  ;  for  if  it  had  it  would 
have  been  expressed  more  plainly,  or  have 
been  represented  under  a  more  apt  figure  or 
hieroglyphic ;  yet  we  may  justly  argue  thus 
with  respect  to  common  books.  And  the 
reason  of  this  difference  is  very  evident  ;  that 

G 


98        Butler's  Best  Passages 

in  Scripture  we  are  not  competent  judges,  as 
we  are  in  common  books,  how  plainly  it  were 
to  have  been  expected,  what  is  the  true  sense 
should  have  been  expressed,  or  under  how  apt 
an  image  figured.  The  only  question  is, 
what  appearance  there  is  that  this  is  the  sense  ; 
and  scarce  at  all  how  much  more  determinately 
or  accurately  it  might  have  been  expressed  or 
figured. — Angus,  p.  186. 

If  one  knew  a  person  to  have  compiled  a 
book  out  of  memoirs,  which  he  received 
from  another,  of  vastly  superior  knowledge 
in  the  subject  of  it,  especially  if  it  were  a 
book  full  of  great  intricacies  and  difficulties  ; 
it  would  in  no  wise  follow  that  one  knew 
the  whole  meaning  of  the  book,  from  know- 
ing the  whole  meaning  of  the  compiler  :  for 
the  original  memoirs,  i.e.  the  author  of  them, 
might  have,  and  there  would  be  no  degree 
of  presumption,  in  many  cases,  against  sup- 
posing him  to  have,  some  further  meaning 
than  the  compiler  saw.     To  say  then,  that 


Butler's  Best  Passages  99 

the  Scriptures,  and  the  things  contained  in 
them,  can  have  no  other  or  further  meaning 
than  those  persons  thought  or  had,  who  first 
recited  or  wrote  them  ;  is  evidently  saying, 
that  those  persons  were  the  original,  proper, 
and  sole  authors  of  those  books. — Angus, 
p.  268. 

This  supposed  revelation's  obtaining  and 
being  received  in  the  world,  with  all  the 
circumstances  and  effects  of  it,  considered 
together  as  one  event,  is  the  most  conspicu- 
ous and  important  event  in  the  story  of 
mankind  :  a  book  of  this  nature,  and  thus 
promulged  and  recommended  to  our  con- 
sideration, demands,  as  if  by  a  voice  from 
heaven,  to  have  its  claim  most  seriously  ex- 
amined into  ;  and,  before  such  examination, 
to  treat  it  with  any  kind  of  scoffing  and 
ridicule,  is  an  offence  against  natural  piety. 
—Angus,  p.  277. 

Neither  obscurity,  nor  seeming  inaccuracy 


loo      Butler's  Best  Passages 

of  style,  nor  various  readings,  nor  early  dis- 
putes about  the  authors  of  particular  parts  ; 
nor  any  other  things  of  the  like  kind,  though 
they  had  been  much  more  considerable  in 
degree  than  they  are,  could  overthrow  the 
authority  of  the  Scripture  ;  unless  the  prophets, 
apostles,  or  our  Lord  had  promised  that  the 
book  containing  the  Divine  revelation  should 
be  secure  from  those  things. — Angus,  p.  i  86. 


ON  CONSCIENCE 

God  hath  given  us  a  moral  faculty,  by 
which  we  distinguish  between  actions,  and 
approve  some  as  virtuous  and  of  good  desert, 
and  disapprove  others  as  vicious  and  of  ill 
desert. 

Now  this  moral  discernment  implies,  in  the 
notion  of  it,  a  rule  of  action,  and  a  rule  of 
a  very  peculiar  kind ;  for  it  carries  in  it 
authority  and  a  right  of  direction  ;  authority 
in  such  a  sense,  as  that  we  cannot  depart 
from  it  without  being  self-condemned.  And 


Butler's  Best  Passages  loi 

that  the  dictates  of  this  moral  faculty,  which 
are  by  nature  a  rule  to  us,  are  moreover  the 
laws  of  God,  laws  in  a  sense  including 
sanctions,  may  be  thus  proved.  Conscious- 
ness of  a  rule  or  guide  of  action,  in  creatures 
who  are  capable  of  considering  it  as  given 
them  by  their  Maker,  not  only  raises  im- 
mediately a  sense  of  duty,  but  also  a  sense 
of  security  in  following  it,  and  of  danger  in 
deviating  from  it.  A  direction  of  the  Author 
of  Nature,  given  to  creatures  capable  of  look- 
ing upon  it  as  such,  is  plainly  a  command  from 
Him  ;  and  a  command  from  Him  necessarily 
includes  in  it,  at  least,  an  implicit  promise  in 
case  of  obedience,  or  threatening  in  case  of 
disobedience. — Angus,  p.  121. 

That  which  renders  beings  capable  of  moral 
government,  is  their  having  a  moral  nature, 
and  moral  faculties  of  perception  and  of  action. 
Brute  creatures  are  impressed  and  actuated  by 
various  instincts  and  propensions  :  so  also  are 
we.    But  additional  to  this,  we  have  a  capacity 


I02      Butler's  Best  Passages 

of  reflecting  upon  actions  and  characters,  and 
making  them  an  object  to  our  thought :  and 
on  doing  this,  we  naturally  and  unavoidably 
approve  some  actions,  under  the  peculiar 
view  of  their  being  virtuous  and  of  good 
desert  ;  and  disapprove  others,  as  vicious  and 
of  ill  desert.  That  we  have  this  moral  ap- 
proving and  disapproving  faculty,  is  certain 
from  our  experiencing  it  in  ourselves,  and 
recognising  it  in  each  other.  It  appears  from 
our  exercising  it  unavoidably  in  the  approba- 
tion and  disapprobation  even  of  feigned  char- 
acters :  from  the  words  right  and  wrongs  odious 
and  amiable^  base  and  worthy,  with  many  others 
of  like  signification  in  all  languages,  applied  to 
actions  and  characters  :  from  the  many  written 
systems  of  morals  which  suppose  it :  since  it 
cannot  be  imagined,  that  all  these  authors, 
throughout  all  these  treatises,  had  absolutely 
no  meaning  at  all  to  their  words,  or  a  meaning 
merely  chimerical  :  from  our  natural  sense  of 
gratitude,  which  implies  a  distinction  between 
merely  being  the  instrument  of  good,  and 


Butler's  Best  Passages  103 

intending  it  :  from  the  like  distinction,  every 
one  makes,  between  injury  and  mere  harm, 
which,  Hobbes  says,  is  peculiar  to  mankind  ; 
and  between  injury  and  just  punishment,  a 
distinction  plainly  natural,  prior  to  the  con- 
sideration of  human  laws.  It  is  manifest  great 
part  of  common  language,  and  of  common 
behaviour  over  the  world,  is  formed  upon 
supposition  of  such  a  moral  faculty;  whether 
called  conscience,  moral  reason,  moral  sense, 
or  Divine  reason  ;  whether  considered  as  a 
sentiment  of  the  understanding,  or  as  a  per- 
ception of  the  heart ;  or,  which  seems  the 
truth,  as  including  both. — Angus,  p.  323. 

It  does  not  appear  that  brutes  have  the 
least  reflex  sense  of  actions  as  distinguished 
from  events ;  or  that  will  and  design,  which 
constitute  the  very  nature  of  actions  as  such, 
are  at  all  an  object  to  their  perception.  But 
to  ours  they  are ;  and  they  are  the  object, 
and  the  only  one,  of  the  approving  and  dis- 
approving faculty.   Acting,  conduct,  behaviour, 


I04      Butler's  Best  Passages 

abstracted  from  all  regard  to  what  is,  in  fact 
and  event,  the  consequence  of  it,  is  itself  the 
natural  object  of  the  moral  discernment ;  as 
speculative  truth  and  falsehood  is  of  specula- 
tive reason.  Intention  of  such  and  such  con- 
sequences, indeed,  is  always  included  ;  for  it 
is  part  of  the  action  itself ;  but  though  the 
intended  good  or  bad  consequences  do  not 
follow,  we  have  exactly  the  same  sense  of  the 
action  as  if  they  did.  In  like  manner  we 
think  well  or  ill  of  characters,  abstracted  from 
all  consideration  of  the  good  or  the  evil,  which 
persons  of  such  characters  have  it  actually  in 
their  power  to  do.  We  never,  in  the  moral 
way,  applaud  or  blame  either  ourselves  or 
others,  for  what  we  enjoy  or  what  we  sufFer, 
or  for  having  impressions  made  upon  us  which 
we  consider  as  altogether  out  of  our  power  ; 
but  only  for  what  we  do,  or  would  have  done, 
had  it  been  in  our  power  :  or  what  we  leave 
undone,  which  we  might  have  done,  or  would 
have  left  undone,  though  we  could  have  done 
\t.— Angus,  p.  325. 


Butler's  Best  Passages  105 

But  that  is  not  a  complete  account  of  man's 
nature.  Somewhat  further  must  be  brought 
in  to  give  us  an  adequate  notion  of  it  ; 
namely,  that  one  of  those  principles  of  action, 
conscience,  or  reflection,  compared  with  the 
rest  as  they  all  stand  together  in  the  nature 
of  man,  plainly  bears  upon  it  marks  of 
authority  over  all  the  rest,  and  claims  the 
absolute  direction  of  them  all,  to  allow  or 
forbid  their  gratification  ;  a  disapprobation 
of  reflection  being  in  itself  a  principle  mani- 
fesdy  superior  to  a  mere  propension.  And 
the  conclusion  is,  that  to  allow  no  more  to 
this  superior  principle  or  part  of  our  nature, 
than  to  other  parts  ;  to  let  it  govern  and 
guide  only  occasionally  in  common  with  the 
rest,  as  its  turn  happens  to  come,  from  the 
temper  and  circumstances  one  happens  to  be 
in  ;  this  is  not  to  act  conformably  to  the 
constitution  of  man  ;  neither  can  any  human 
creature  be  said  to  act  conformably  to  his 
constitution  of  nature,  unless  he  allows  to 
that  superior  principle  the  absolute  authority 


io6      Butler's  Best  Passages 

which  is  due  to  it.  And  this  conclusion 
is  abundantly  confirmed  from  hence,  that 
one  may  determine  what  course  of  action 
the  economy  of  man's  nature  requires, 
without  so  much  as  knowing  in  what  degree 
of  strength  the  several  principles  prevail,  or 
which  of  them  have  actually  the  greatest 
influence. 

The  practical  reason  of  insisting  so  much 
upon  this  natural  authority  of  the  principle  of 
reflection  or  conscience  is,  that  it  seems  in 
great  measure  overlooked  by  many,  who  are 
by  no  means  the  worst  sort  of  men.  It  is 
thought  sufficient  to  abstain  from  gross  wicked- 
ness, and  to  be  humane  and  kind  to  such  as 
happen  to  come  in  their  way.  Whereas  in 
reality,  the  very  constitution  of  our  nature 
requires  that  we  bring  our  whole  conduct 
before  this  superior  faculty  ;  wait  its  deter- 
mination and  enforce  upon  ourselves  its 
authority,  and  make  it  the  business  of  our 
lives,  as  it  is  absolutely  the  whole  business  of  a 
moral  agent,  to  conform  ourselves  to  it.  This 


Butler's  Best  Passages  107 

is  the  true  meaning  of  that  ancient  precept, 
Reverence  thyself. — Angus,  p.  344. 

There  is  a  principle  of  reflection  in  men,  by 
which  they  distinguish  between,  approve,  and 
disapprove  their  own  actions.  We  are  plainly 
constituted  such  sort  of  creatures  as  to  reflect 
upon  our  own  nature.  The  mind  can  take  a 
view  of  what  passes  within  itself,  its  propen- 
sions,  aversions,  passions,  affections,  as  respect- 
ing such  objects,  and  in  such  degrees  ;  and  of 
the  several  actions  consequent  thereupon.  In 
this  survey  it  approves  of  one,  disapproves  of 
another,  and  towards  a  third  is  affected  in 
neither  of  these  ways,  but  is  quite  indifferent. 
This  principle  in  man,  by  which  he  approves 
or  disapproves  his  heart,  temper,  and  actions, 
is  conscience  ;  for  this  is  the  strict  sense  of  the 
word,  though  sometimes  it  is  used  so  as  to 
take  in  more.  And  that  this  faculty  tends  to 
restrain  men  from  doing  mischief  to  each  other, 
and  leads  them  to  do  good,  is  too  manifest  to 
need  being  insisted  upon. — Angus,  p.  365. 


io8      Butler's  Best  Passages 

There  is  a  superior  principle  of  reflection 
or  conscience  in  every  man,  which  distinguishes 
between  the  internal  principles  of  his  heart, 
as  well  as  his  external  actions  ;  which  passes 
judgment  upon  himself  and  them  ;  pronounces 
determinately  some  actions  to  be  in  themselves 
just,  right,  good  ;  others  to  be  in  them- 
selves evil,  wrong,  unjust.  Which,  without 
being  consulted,  without  being  advised  with, 
magisterially  exerts  itself,  and  approves  or 
condemns  him  the  doer  of  them  accordingly. 
And  which,  if  not  forcibly  stopped,  naturally 
and  always  of  course  goes  on  to  anticipate  a 
higher  and  more  effectual  sentence,  which  shall 
hereafter  second  and  affirm  its  own. — Angus, 
P-  378- 

Conscience  is  the  guide  of  life. — Angus, 
p.  467. 

Thus  that  principle,  by  which  we  survey, 
and  either  approve  or  disapprove  our  own 
heart,  temper,  and  actions,  is  not  only  to  be 


Butler's  Best  Passages  109 

considered  as  what  is  in  its  turn  to  have  some 
influence  ;  which  may  be  said  of  every  passion, 
of  the  lowest  appetites  :  but  likewise  as  being 
superior  ;  as  from  its  very  nature  manifestly 
claiming  superiority  over  all  others  :  insomuch 
that  you  cannot  form  a  notion  of  this  faculty, 
conscience,  without  taking  in  judgment,  direc- 
tion, superintendency.  This  is  a  constituent 
part  of  the  idea,  that  is,  of  the  faculty  itself ; 
and  to  preside  and  govern,  from  the  very 
economy  and  constitution  of  man,  belongs  to 
it.  Had  it  strength,  as  it  has  right ;  had  it 
power,  as  it  has  manifest  authority ;  it  would 
absolutely  govern  the  world. — Angus,  p,  381. 

That  your  conscience  approves  of  and 
attests  to  such  a  course  of  action,  is  itself  alone 
an  obligation.  Conscience  does  not  only  offer 
itself  to  show  us  the  way  we  should  walk  in, 
but  it  likewise  carries  its  own  authority  with 
it,  that  it  is  our  natural  guide  ;  the  guide 
assigned  to  us  by  the  Author  of  our  nature. 
It  therefore  belongs  to  our  condition  of  being, 


iio      Butler's  Best  Passages 

it  is  our  duty  to  walk,  in  that  path  and  follow 
this  guide  without  looking  about  to  see 
whether  we  may  not  possibly  forsake  them 
with  impunity. — Angus,  p.  386. 

ON  REASON 

I  express  myself  with  caution,  lest  1  should 
be  mistaken  to  vilify  reason,  which  is  indeed 
the  only  faculty  we  have  wherewith  to  judge 
concerning  anything,  even  revelation  itself. — 
Angus,  p.  182. 

Great  caution  of  not  vilifying  the  faculty  of 
reason,  which  is  the  candle  of  the  Lord  within 
us.— Angus,  p.  303. 

ON  CHARACTER 

By  character  is  meant  that  which,  in  speak- 
ing of  men,  we  should  express  by  the  words 
temper,  taste,  dispositions,  practical  principles,  that 
whole  frame  of  mind,  from  whence  we  act  in  one 
manner  rather  than  another. — Angus^  p.  120. 


Butler's  Best  Passages  iii 

But  then,  as  Nature  has  endued  us  with  a 
power  of  supplying  those  deficiencies,  by 
acquired  knowledge,  experience,  and  habits ; 
so  likewise  we  are  placed  in  a  condition,  in 
infancy,  childhood,  and  youth,  fitted  for  it ; 
fitted  for  our  acquiring  those  qualifications  of 
all  sorts,  which  we  stand  in  need  of  in  mature 
age.  Hence  children  from  their  very  birth 
are  daily  growing  acquainted  with  the  objects 
about  them,  with  the  scene  in  which  they  are 
placed,  and  to  have  a  future  part,  and  learning 
somewhat  or  other  necessary  to  the  perform- 
ance of  it.  The  subordinations  to  which  they 
are  accustomed  in  domestic  life,  teach  them 
self-government  in  common  behaviour  abroad, 
and  prepare  them  for  subjection  and  obedience 
to  civil  authority.  What  passes  before  their 
eyes  and  daily  happens  to  them,  gives  them 
experience,  caution  against  treachery  and 
deceit,  together  with  numberless  little  rules  of 
action  and  conduct  which  we  could  not  live 
without,  and  which  are  learned  so  insensibly 
and  so  perfectly,  as  to  be  mistaken  perhaps 


112      Butler's  Best  Passages 

for  instinct,  though  they  are  the  effect  of 
long  experience  and  exercise,  as  much  so  as 
language  or  knowledge  in  particular  business, 
or  the  qualifications  and  behaviour  belonging 
to  the  several  ranks  and  professions. 

Thus  the  beginning  of  our  days  is  adapted 
to  be,  and  is,  a  state  of  education  in  the  theory 
and  practice  of  mature  life.  We  are  much 
assisted  in  it  by  example,  instruction,  and  the 
care  of  others,  but  a  great  deal  is  left  to  our- 
selves to  do.  And  of  this,  as  part  is  done 
easily  and  of  course,  so  part  requires  diligence 
and  care,  the  voluntary  foregoing  many  things 
which  we  desire,  and  setting  ourselves  to  what 
we  should  have  no  inclination  to,  but  for  the 
necessity  or  expedience  of  it.  For  that  labour 
and  industry,  which  the  station  of  so  many 
absolutely  requires,  they  would  be  greatly 
unqualified  for  in  maturity,  as  those  in  other 
stations  would  be  for  any  other  sorts  of 
application,  if  both  were  not  accustomed  to 
them  in  their  youth.  And  according  as 
persons    behave    themselves    in  the  general 


Butler's  Best  Passages  113 

education  which  all  go  through,  and  in  the 
particular  ones  adapted  to  particular  employ- 
ments, their  character  is  formed  and  made 
appear  ;  they  recommend  themselves  more  or 
less,  and  are  capable  of,  and  placed  in,  different 
stations  in  the  society  of  mankind. — Angus, 
p.  95. 

A  man's  character  cannot  be  determined  by 
the  love  he  bears  to  his  neighbour,  considered 
absolutely  ;  but  the  proportion  which  this 
bears  to  self-love,  whether  it  be  attended  to 
or  not,  is  the  chief  thing  which  forms  the 
character,  and  influences  the  actions.  For, 
as  the  form  of  the  body  is  a  composition 
of  various  parts  ;  so  likewise  our  inward 
structure  is  not  simple  or  uniform,  but  a 
composition  of  various  passions,  appetites, 
affections,  together  with  rationality  ;  including 
in  this  last  both  the  discernment  of  what  is 
right,  and  a  disposition  to  regulate  ourselves 
by  it.  There  is  greater  variety  of  parts  in 
what  we  call  a  character  than  there  are  features 

H 


114      Butler's  Best  Passages 

in  a  face  ;  and  the  morality  of  that  is  no  more 
determined  by  one  part,  than  the  beauty  or 
deformity  of  this  is  by  one  single  feature  : 
each  is  to  be  judged  of  by  all  the  parts  or 
features,  not  taken  singly,  but  together. — 
Angus,  p.  487. 

There  is  a  third  thing,  which  may  seem 
implied  in  the  present  world's  being  a 
state  of  probation ;  that  it  is  a  theatre  of 
action,  for  the  manifestation  of  persons' 
characters  with  respect  to  a  future  one  ;  not, 
to  be  sure,  to  an  all-knowing  Being,  but  to 
this  creation  or  part  of  it.  This  may,  perhaps, 
be  only  a  consequence  of  our  being  in  a  state 
of  probation  in  the  other  senses.  However, 
it  is  not  impossible  that  men's  showing  and 
making  manifest  what  is  in  their  heart,  what 
their  real  character  is,  may  have  respect  to  a 
future  life,  in  ways  and  manners  which  we  are 
not  acquainted  with ;  particularly  it  may  be  a 
means,  for  the  Author  of  Nature  does  not 
appear  to  do  anything  without  means,  of  their 


Butler's  Best  Passages  115 

being  disposed  of  suitably  to  their  characters, 
and  of  its  being  known  to  the  creation  by 
way  of  example,  that  they  are  thus  disposed 
of. 

But  not  to  enter  upon  any  conjectural 
account  of  this,  one  may  just  mention,  that 
the  manifestation  of  persons'  characters  con- 
tributes very  much  in  various  ways,  to  the 
carrying  on  a  great  part  of  that  general  course 
of  Nature,  respecting  mankind,  which  comes 
under  our  observation  at  present. 

I  shall  only  add,  that  probation,  in  both  these 
senses,  as  well  as  in  that  treated  in  the  fore- 
going chapter,  is  implied  in  moral  government ; 
since  by  persons'  behaviour  under  it,  their 
characters  cannot  but  be  manifested,  and  if 
they  behave  well,  improved. — Angus,  p.  no. 

ON  HABIT 

As  habits  belonging  to  the  body  are  pro- 
duced by  external  acts,  so  habits  of  the  mind 
are   produced    by   the   exertion    of  inward 


ii6      Butler's  Best  Passages 

practical  principles,  i.e.  by  carrying  them  into 
act,  or  acting  upon  them  ;  the  principles  of 
obedience,  or  veracity,  justice,  and  charity. 

Nor  can  those  habits  be  formed  by  any 
external  course  of  action,  otherwise  than  as  it 
proceeds  from  these  principles  ;  because  it  is 
only  these  inward  principles  exerted,  which 
are  strictly  acts  of  obedience,  of  veracity,  of 
justice,  and  of  charity.  So  likewise  habits  of 
attention,  industry,  self-government,  are  in 
the  same  manner  acquired  by  exercise  ;  and 
habits  of  envy  and  revenge  by  indulgence, 
whether  in  outward  act,  or  in  thought  and 
intention,  i.e.  inward  act  ;  for  such  intention 
is  an  act.  Resolutions  also  to  do  well  are 
properly  acts.  And  endeavouring  to  enforce 
upon  our  minds  a  practical  sense  of  virtue, 
or  to  beget  in  others  that  practical  sense  of  it 
which  a  man  really  has  himself,  is  a  virtuous 
act.  All  these,  therefore,  may  and  will  con- 
tribute towards  forming  good  habits.  But 
going  over  the  theory  of  virtue  in  one's 
thoughts,    talking    well,   and    drawing  fine 


Butler's  Best  Passages  117 

pictures  of  it  ;  this  is  so  far  from  necessarily 
or  certainly  conducing  to  form  a  habit  of  it  in 
him  who  thus  employs  himself,  that  it  may 
harden  the  mind  in  a  contrary  course,  and 
render  it  gradually  more  insensible,  i.e.  form 
a  habit  of  insensibility  to  all  moral  considera- 
tions. For,  from  our  very  faculty  of  habits, 
passive  impressions,  by  being  repeated,  grow 
weaker. — Angus,  p.  90. 

Thus,  by  accustoming  ourselves  to  any 
course  of  action,  we  get  an  aptness  to  go  on,  a 
facility,  readiness,  and  often  pleasure,  in  it. 
The  inclinations  which  rendered  us  averse  to  it 
grow  weaker  ;  the  difTiculties  in  it,  not  only 
the  imaginary  but  the  real  ones,  lessen ;  the 
reasons  for  it  offer  themselves  of  course  to  our 
thoughts  upon  all  occasions  ;  and  the  least 
glimpse  of  them  is  sufficient  to  make  us  go  on 
in  a  course  of  action  to  which  we  have  been 
accustomed.  And  practical  principles  appear 
to  grow  stronger,  absolutely  in  themselves,  by 
exercise,  as  well  as  relatively  with  regard  to 


ii8      Butler's  Best  Passages 

contrary  principles,  which,  by  being  accustomed 
to  submit,  do  so  habitually  and  of  course. 
And  thus  a  new  character,  in  several  respects, 
may  be  formed ;  and  many  habitudes  of  life, 
not  given  by  Nature,  but  which  Nature  directs 
us  to  acquire. — Angus,  p.  93. 

ON  PROBATION 

The  evidence  of  religion  not  appearing 
obvious,  may  constitute  one  particular  part  of 
some  men's  trial  in  the  religious  sense  :  as  it 
gives  scope  for  a  virtuous  exercise,  or  vicious 
neglect,  of  their  understanding,  in  examining 
or  not  examining  into  that  evidence.  There 
seems  no  possible  reason  to  be  given,  why  we 
may  not  be  in  a  state  of  moral  probation,  with 
regard  to  the  exercise  of  our  understanding 
upon  the  subject  of  religion,  as  we  are  with 
regard  to  our  behaviour  in  common  affairs. 
The  former  is  as  much  a  thing  within  our 
power  and  choice  as  the  latter.  And  I  suppose 
it  is  to  be  laid  down  for  certain,  that  the  same 


Butler's  Best  Passages  119 

character,  the  same  inward  principle,  which, 
after  a  man  is  convinced  of  the  truth  of 
religion,  renders  him  obedient  to  the  precepts 
of  it,  would,  were  he  not  thus  convinced,  set 
him  about  an  examination  of  it,  upon  its 
system  and  evidence  being  offered  to  his 
thoughts ;  and  that  in  the  latter  state  his 
examination  would  be  with  an  impartiality, 
seriousness,  and  solicitude,  proportionable  to 
what  his  obedience  is  in  the  former.  And  as 
inattention,  negligence,  want  of  all  serious 
concern,  about  a  matter  of  such  a  nature,  and 
such  importance,  when  offered  to  men's  con- 
sideration, is,  before  a  distinct  conviction  of 
its  truth,  as  real  immoral  depravity  and  dis- 
soluteness as  neglect  of  religious  practice  after 
such  conviction  ;  so  active  solicitude  about  it, 
and  fair  impartial  consideration  of  its  evidence 
before  such  conviction,  is  as  really  an  exercise  of 
a  morally  right  temper,  as  is  religious  practice 
after.  Thus,  that  religion  is  not  intuitively 
true,  but  a  matter  of  deduction  and  inference  ; 
that  a  conviction  of  its  truth  is  not  forced 


I20      Butler's  Best  Passages 

upon  every  one,  but  left  to  be,  by  some, 
collected  with  heedful  attention  to  premises ; 
this  as  much  constitutes  religious  probation,  as 
much  affords  sphere,  scope,  opportunity,  for 
right  and  wrong  behaviour,  as  anything  what- 
ever does.  And  their  manner  of  treating  this 
subject,  when  laid  before  them,  shows  what  is 
in  their  heart,  and  is  an  exertion  of  it. — Angus, 
P-  235- 

Especially  men  are  bound  to  keep  at  the 
greatest  distance  from  all  dissolute  profane- 
ness  ;  for  this  the  very  nature  of  the  case  for- 
bids ;  and  to  treat  with  the  highest  reverence  a 
matter,  upon  which  their  own  whole  interest  and 
being,  and  the  fate  of  Nature,  depend.  This 
behaviour,  and  an  active  endeavour  to  maintain 
within  themselves  this  temper,  is  the  business, 
the  duty,  and  the  wisdom  of  those  persons, 
who  complain  of  the  doubtfulness  of  religion  : 
is  what  they  are  under  the  most  proper  obliga- 
tions to.  And  such  behaviour  is  an  exertion 
of,  and  has  a  tendency  to  improve  in  them, 


Butler's  Best  Passages  121 

that  character,  which  the  practice  of  all  the 
several  duties  of  religion,  from  a  full  conviction 
of  its  truth,  is  an  exertion  of,  and  has  a  tendency 
to  improve  in  others  ;  others,  I  say,  to  whom 
God  has  afforded  such  conviction.  Nay,  con- 
sidering the  infinite  importance  of  religion, 
revealed  as  well  as  natural,  I  think  it  may  be 
said  in  general,  that  whoever  will  weigh  the 
matter  thoroughly  may  see,  that  there  is  not 
near  so  much  difference  as  is  commonly 
imagined  between  what  ought  in  reason  to  be 
the  rule  of  life,  to  those  persons  who  are 
fully  convinced  of  its  truth,  and  to  those  who 
have  only  a  serious  doubting  apprehension  that 
it  may  be  true.  Their  hopes,  and  fears,  and 
obligations,  will  be  in  various  degrees  :  but  as 
the  subject-matter  of  their  hopes  and  fears  is 
the  same,  so  the  subject-matter  of  their  obliga- 
tions, what  they  are  bound  to  do  and  to  refrain 
from,  is  not  so  very  unlike. — Angus,  p.  237. 

The  difficulties  in  which  the  evidence  of 
religion  is  involved,  which  some  complain  of, 


122      Butler's  Best  Passages 

is  no  more  a  just  ground  of  complaint  than  the 
external  circumstances  of  temptation,  which 
others  are  placed  in  ;  or  than  difficulties  in 
the  practice  of  it,  after  a  full  conviction  of  its 
truth.  Temptations  render  our  state  a  more 
improving  state  of  discipline  than  it  would  be 
otherwise  :  as  they  give  occasion  for  a  more 
attentive  exercise  of  the  virtuous  principle 
which  confirms  and  strengthens  it  more  than 
an  easier  or  less  attentive  exercise  of  it  could. 
Now,  speculative  difficulties  are,  in  this  respect, 
of  the  very  same  nature  with  these  external 
temptations.  For  the  evidence  of  religion  not 
appearing  obvious,  is  to  some  persons  a  temp- 
tation to  reject  it  without  any  consideration  at 
all ;  and  therefore  requires  such  an  attentive 
exercise  of  the  virtuous  principle,  seriously  to 
consider  that  evidence,  as  there  would  be  no 
occasion  for,  but  for  such  temptation.  And 
the  supposed  doubtfulness  of  its  evidence, 
after  it  has  been  in  some  sort  considered, 
affords  opportunity  to  an  unfair  mind  of 
explaining  away  and  deceitfully  hiding  from 


Butler's  Best  Passages  123 

itself  that  evidence  which  it  might  see  ;  and 
also  for  men's  encouraging  themselves  in  vice, 
from  hopes  of  impunity,  though  they  do 
clearly  see  thus  much  at  least,  that  these  hopes 
are  uncertain  :  in  like  manner  as  the  common 
temptation  to  many  instances  of  folly,  which 
end  in  temporal  infamy  and  ruin,  is  the 
ground  for  hope  of  not  being  detected  and 
of  escaping  with  impunity  ;  i.e.  the  doubtful- 
ness of  the  proof  beforehand,  that  such  foolish 
behaviour  will  thus  end  in  infamy  and  ruin. 
On  the  contrary,  supposed  doubtfulness  in  the 
evidence  of  religion  calls  for  a  more  careful 
and  attentive  exercise  of  the  virtuous  principle, 
in  fairly  yielding  themselves  up  to  the  proper 
influence  of  any  real  evidence,  though  doubtful : 
and  in  practising  conscientiously  all  virtue, 
though  under  some  uncertainty,  whether  the 
government  in  the  universe  may  not  possibly 
be  such,  as  that  vice  may  escape  with  impunity. 

And  in  general,  temptation,  meaning  by 
this  word  the  lesser  allurements  to  wrong,  and 
difficulties  in  the  discharge  of  our  duty,  as  well 


124      Butler's  Best  Passages 

as  the  greater  ones  ;  temptation,  I  say,  as  such, 
and  of  every  kind  and  degree,  as  it  calls  forth 
some  virtuous  efforts,  additional  to  what  would 
otherwise  have  been  wanting,  cannot  but  be 
an  additional  discipline  and  improvement  of 
virtue,  as  well  as  probation  of  it  in  the  other 
senses  of  that  word. 

So  that  the  very  same  account  is  to  be 
given,  why  the  evidence  of  religion  should  be 
left  in  such  a  manner  as  to  require  in  some  an 
attentive,  solicitous,  perhaps  painful  exercise 
of  their  understanding  about  it ;  as  why  others 
should  be  placed  in  such  circumstances  as  that 
the  practice  of  its  common  duties,  after  a  full 
conviction  of  the  truth  of  it,  should  require 
attention,  solicitude,  and  pains  ;  or  why  appear- 
ing doubtfulness  should  be  permitted  to  afford 
matter  of  temptation  to  some  ;  as  why  ex- 
ternal difficulties  and  allurements  should  be 
permitted  to  afford  matter  of  temptation  to 
others.  The  same  account  also  is  to  be  given, 
why  some  should  be  exercised  with  tempta- 
tions of  both  these  kinds  ;    as  why  others 


Butler's  Best  Passages  125 

should  be  exercised  with  the  latter  in  such  very 
high  degrees  as  some  have  been,  particularly 
as  the  primitive  Christians  were. 

Nor  does  there  appear  any  absurdity  in 
supposing,  that  the  speculative  difficulties  in 
which  the  evidence  of  religion  is  involved,  may 
make  even  the  principal  part  of  some  persons' 
trial.  For  as  the  chief  temptations  of  the 
generality  of  the  world  are  the  ordinary 
motives  to  injustice  or  unrestrained  pleasure  ; 
or  to  live  in  the  neglect  of  religion  from  that 
frame  of  mind  which  renders  many  persons 
almost  without  feeling  as  to  anything  distant, 
or  which  is  not  the  object  of  their  senses  :  so 
there  are  other  persons  without  this  shallow- 
ness of  temper,  persons  of  a  deeper  sense  as  to 
what  is  invisible  and  future ;  who  not  only 
see,  but  have  a  general  practical  feeling,  that 
what  is  to  come  will  be  present,  and  that 
things  are  not  less  real  for  their  not  being  the 
objects  of  sense  ;  and  who,  from  their  natural 
constitution  of  body  and  of  temper,  and 
from  their  external  condition,  may  have  small 


126      Butler's  Best  Passages 

temptations  to  behave  ill,  small  difficulty  in 
behaving  well,  in  the  common  course  of  life. 
Now  when  these  latter  persons  have  a  distinct 
full  conviction  of  the  truth  of  religion,  with- 
out any  possible  doubts  or  difficulties,  the 
practice  of  it  is  to  them  unavoidable,  unless 
they  will  do  a  constant  violence  to  their  own 
minds ;  and  religion  is  scarce  any  more  a 
discipline  to  them  than  it  is  to  creatures  in 
a  state  of  perfection.  Yet  these  persons  may 
possibly  stand  in  need  of  moral  discipHne  and 
exercise  in  a  higher  degree,  than  they  would 
have  by  such  an  easy  practice  of  religion.  Or 
it  may  be  requisite,  for  reasons  unknown  to 
us,  that  they  should  give  some  further  mani- 
festation what  is  their  moral  character  to  the 
creation  of  God,  than  such  a  practice  of  it 
would  be.  Thus  in  the  great  variety  of 
religious  situations  in  which  men  are  placed, 
what  constitutes,  what  chiefly  and  peculiarly 
constitutes,  the  probation,  in  all  senses,  of  some 
persons,  may  be  the  difficulties  in  which  the 
evidence  of  religion  is  involved  ;    and  their 


Butler's  Best  Passages  127 

principal  and  distinguished  trial  may  be,  how 
they  will  behave  under  and  with  respect  to 
these  difficulties.  Circumstances  in  men's 
situation  in  their  temporal  capacity,  analogous 
in  good  measure  to  this  respecting  religion,  are 
to  be  observed.  We  find  some  persons  are 
placed  in  such  a  situation  in  the  world,  as  that 
their  chief  difficulty  with  regard  to  conduct,  is 
not  the  doing  what  is  prudent  when  it  is 
known  ;  for  this,  in  numberless  cases,  is  as 
easy  as  the  contrary  :  but  to  some  the  principal 
exercise  is,  recollection  and  being  upon  their 
guard  against  deceits,  the  deceits  suppose  of 
those  about  them  ;  against  false  appearances 
of  reason  and  prudence.  To  persons  in  some 
situations,  the  principal  exercise  with  respect  to 
conduct  is,  attention  in  order  to  inform  them- 
selves what  is  proper,  what  is  really  the 
reasonable  and  prudent  part  to  act. — Angus, 
P-  239- 

Religion  presupposes  this  as  much,  and  in 
the  same  sense,  as  speaking  to  a  man  pre- 


128      Butler's  Best  Passages 

supposes  he  understands  the  language  in 
which  you  speak  ;  or  a  warning  a  man  of  any 
danger  presupposes  that  he  hath  such  a  regard 
to  himself,  as  that  he  will  endeavour  to  avoid 
it.  And  therefore,  the  question  is  not  at  all. 
Whether  the  evidence  of  religion  be  satis- 
factory ;  but,  whether  it  be,  in  reason,  sufficient 
to  prove  and  discipline  that  virtue,  which  it 
presupposes.  Now  the  evidence  of  it  is  fully 
sufficient  for  all  those  purposes  of  probation  ; 
how  far  soever  it  is  from  being  satisfactory  as 
to  the  purposes  of  curiosity,  or  any  other  : 
and  indeed  it  answers  the  purposes  of  the 
former  in  several  respects,  which  it  would  not 
do  if  it  were  as  overbearing  as  is  required. 
One  might  add  further,  that  whether  the 
motives  or  the  evidence  for  any  course  of 
action  be  satisfactory,  meaning  here,  by  that 
word,  what  satisfies  a  man,  that  such  a  course 
of  action  will  in  event  be  for  his  good  ;  this 
need  never  be,  and  I  think,  strictly  speaking, 
never  is,  the  practical  question  in  common 
matters.    But  the  practical  question  in  all  cases 


Butler's  Best  Passages  129 

is,  whether  the  evidence  for  a  course  of  action 
be  such  as,  taking  in  all  circumstances,  makes 
the  faculty  within  us,  which  is  the  guide  and 
judge  of  conduct,  determine  that  course  of 
action  to  be  prudent.  Indeed,  satisfaction 
that  it  will  be  for  our  interest  or  happiness, 
abundantly  determines  an  action  to  be  prudent : 
but  evidence  almost  infinitely  lower  than  this 
determines  actions  to  be  so  too,  even  in  the 
conduct  of  every  day. — Angus,  p.  296. 

It  is  indeed  true,  God  willeth  that  all  men 
should  be  saved  :  yet,  from  the  unalterable  con- 
stitution of  His  government,  the  salvation  of 
every  man  cannot  but  depend  upon  his  be- 
haviour, and  therefore  cannot  but  depend  upon 
himself ;  and  is  necessarily  his  own  concern,  in 
a  sense  in  which  it  cannot  be  another's.  All 
this  the  Scripture  declares,  in  a  manner  the  most 
forcible  and  alarming  :  Can  a  man  be  -profitable 
unto  God,  as  he  that  is  wise  may  he  ■profitable 
unto  himself?  Is  it  any  pleasure  to  the  Almighty, 
that  thou  art  righteous  ?  or  is  it  gain  to  Him,  that 
I 


130      Butler's  Best  Passages 

ihou  makest  thy  way  perfect  ?  If  thou  be  wise, 
thou  shah  be  wise  for  thyself;  but  if  thou  scornest, 
thou  alone  shall  bear  it.  He  that  heareth,  let  him 
hear ;  and  he  that  forbeareth,  let  him  forbear. 
And  again,  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him 
hear ;  but  if  any  man  be  ignorant,  i.e.  wilfully, 
let  him  be  ignorant.  To  the  same  purpose  are 
those  awful  words  of  the  angel,  in  the  person 
of  Him  to  whom  all  judgment  is  committed :  He 
that  is  unjust,  let  him  be  unjust  still ;  and  he 
which  is  filthy,  let  him  be  filthy  still ;  and  he  that 
is  righteous,  let  him  be  righteous  still ;  and  he  that 
is  holy,  let  him  be  holy  still.  And,  behold,  I 
come  quickly  ;  and  My  reward  is  with  Me,  to  give 
every  man  according  as  his  work  shall  be.  The 
righteous  government  of  the  world  must  be 
carried  on  ;  and,  of  necessity,  men  shall  remain 
the  subjects  of  it,  by  being  examples  of  its 
mercy  or  of  its  justice.  Life  and  death  are  set 
before  them,  and  whether  they  like  shall  be  given 
unto  them.  They  are  to  make  their  choice,  and 
abide  by  it  :  but  whichsoever  their  choice  be, 
the  gospel  is  equally  a  witness  to  them  ;  and 


Butler's  Best  Passages  131 

the  purposes  of  Providence  are  answered 
by  this  witness  of  the  gospel. — -Gladstone,  ii. 
p.  283. 

ON   THE  PASSIONS 

Now  particular  propensions,  from  their  very- 
nature,  must  be  felt,  the  objects  of  them  being 
present ;  though  they  cannot  be  gratified  at 
all,  or  not  w^ith  the  allowance  of  the  moral 
principle.  But  if  they  can  be  gratified  without 
its  allowance,  or  by  contradicting  it,  then 
they  must  be  conceived  to  have  some  tendency 
in  how  low  a  degree  soever,  yet  some  tendency, 
to  induce  persons  to  such  forbidden  gratifica- 
tion. This  tendency,  in  some  one  particular 
propension,  may  be  increased  by  the  greater 
frequency  of  occasions  naturally  exciting  it, 
than  of  occasions  exciting  others.  The  least 
voluntary  indulgence  in  forbidden  circum- 
stances, though  but  in  thought,  will  increase 
this  wrong  tendency ;  and  may  increase  it 
further,  till,  peculiar  conjunctures  perhaps 
conspiring,  it  becomes  effect  ;  and  danger  ot 
deviating  from  right  ends  in  actual  deviation 


132      Butler's  Best  Passages 

from  it ;  a  danger  necessarily  arising  from  the 
very  nature  of  propension  ;  and  which  there- 
fore could  not  have  been  prevented,  though  it 
might  have  been  escaped,  or  got  innocently 
through.  The  case  would  be,  as  if  we  were 
to  suppose  a  straight  path  marked  out  for  a 
person,  in  which  such  a  degree  of  attention 
would  keep  him  steady  ;  but  if  he  would  not 
attend  in  this  degree,  any  one  of  a  thousand 
objects,  catching  his  eye,  might  lead  him  out 
of  it.  Now  it  is  impossible  to  say  how  much 
even  the  first  full  overt  act  of  irregularity 
might  disorder  the  inward  constitution,  unsettle 
the  adjustments,  and  alter  the  proportions 
which  formed  it,  and  in  which  the  uprightness 
of  its  make  consisted;  but  repetition  of  ir- 
regularities would  produce  habits.  And 
thus  the  constitution  would  be  spoiled  ;  and 
creatures  made  upright,  become  corrupt  and 
depraved  in  their  settled  character,  proportion- 
ably  to  their  repeated  irregularities  in  occasional 
acts.  But,  on  the  contrary,  these  creatures 
might  have  improved  and  raised  themselves  to 


Butler's  Best  Passages  1-53 

a  higher  and  more  secure  state  of  virtue,  by  the 
contrary  behaviour  ;  by  steadily  following  the 
moral  principle,  supposed  to  be  one  part  of 
their  nature  ;  and  thus  withstanding  that 
unavoidable  danger  of  defection,  which  neces- 
sarily arose  from  propension,  the  other  part  of 
it.  For,  by  thus  preserving  their  integrity  for 
some  time,  their  danger  would  lessen  ;  since 
propensions,  by  being  inured  to  submit,  would 
do  it  more  easily  and  of  course  ;  and  their 
security  against  this  lessening  danger  would 
increase  ;  since  the  moral  principle  would  gain 
additional  strength  by  exercise ;  both  which 
things  are  implied  in  the  notion  of  virtuous 
habits.  Thus,  then,  vicious  indulgence  is  not 
only  criminal  in  itself,  but  also  depraves  the 
inward  constitution  or  character.  And  virtuous 
self-government  is  not  only  right  in  itself,  but 
also  improves  the  inward  constitution  or 
character ;  and  may  improve  it  to  such  a 
degree,  that  though  we  should  suppose  it 
impossible  for  particular  affections  to  be  abso- 
lutely coincident  with  the  moral  principle ;  and 


134      Butler's  Best  Passages 

consequently  should  allow,  that  such  creatures 
as  have  been  above  supposed,  would  for  ever 
remain  defectible  ;  yet  their  danger  of  actually 
deviating  from  right  may  be  almost  infinitely 
lessened,  and  they  fully  fortified  against  what 
remains  of  it ;  if  that  may  be  called  danger, 
against  which  there  is  an  adequate  effectual 
security. — Angus,  p.  lOO. 

However,  as  when  we  say,  men  are  misled 
by  external  circumstances  of  temptation,  it 
cannot  but  be  understood  that  there  is  some- 
what within  themselves  to  render  those  cir- 
cumstances temptations,  or  to  render  them 
susceptible  of  impressions  from  them ;  so 
when  we  say  they  are  misled  by  passions,  it  is 
always  supposed  that  there  are  occasions, 
circumstances,  and  objects,  exciting  these 
passions,  and  affording  means  for  gratifying 
them.  And,  therefore,  temptations  from  within 
and  from  without,  coincide  and  mutually  imply 
each  other.  Now  the  several  external  objects 
of  the  appetites,  passions,  and  affections,  being 


Butler's  Best  Passages  135 

present  to  the  senses,  or  offering  themselves  to 
the  mind,  and  so  exciting  emotions  suitable  to 
their  nature  ;  not  only  in  cases  where  they  can 
be  gratified  consistently  with  innocence  and 
prudence,  but  also  in  cases  where  they  cannot, 
and  yet  can  be  gratified  imprudently  and 
viciously  ;  this  as  really  puts  them  in  danger  of 
voluntarily  foregoing  their  present  interest  or 
good,  as  their  future. — Angus,  p.  78- 

Every  natural  appetite,  passion,  and  affection, 
may  be  gratified  in  particular  instances,  without 
being  subservient  to  the  particular  chief  end 
for  which  these  several  principles  were  respec- 
tively implanted  in  our  nature.  And,  if  neither 
this  end,  nor  any  other  moral  obligation  be 
contradicted,  such  gratification  is  innocent. — 
Angus,  p.  448. 

ON    MEANS   AND  ENDS 

As  in  the  scheme  of  the  natural  world,  no 
ends  appear  to  be  accomplished  without  means  ; 


136      Butler's  Best  Passages 

so  we  find  that  means  very  undesirable,  often 
conduce  to  bring  about  ends  in  such  a  measure 
desirable,  as  greatly  to  overbalance  the  dis- 
agreeableness  of  the  means.  And  in  cases 
where  such  means  are  conducive  to  such  ends, 
it  is  not  reason,  but  experience,  which  shows 
us,  that  they  are  thus  conducive.  Experience 
also  shows  many  means  to  be  conducive  and 
necessary  to  accomplish  ends,  which  means 
before  experience,  we  should  have  thought 
would  have  had  even  a  contrary  tendency. — 
Angus,  p.  135. 

According  to  our  manner  of  conception 
God  makes  use  of  variety  of  means,  what  we 
often  think  tedious  ones,  in  the  natural  course 
of  providence,  for  the  accomplishment  of  all 
His  ends.  Indeed,  it  is  certain  there  is  some- 
what in  this  matter  quite  beyond  our  compre- 
hension ;  but  the  mystery  is  as  great  in  Nature 
as  in  Christianity.  We  know  what  we  our- 
selves aim  at,  as  final  ends ;  and  what  courses 
we  take,  merely  as  means  conducing  to  those 


Butler's  Best  Passages  137 

ends.  But  we  are  greatly  ignorant  how  far 
things  are  considered  by  the  Author  of  Nature 
under  the  single  notion  of  means  and  ends  ;  so 
as  that  it  may  be  said  this  is  merely  an  end 
and  that  merely  means,  in  His  regard.  And 
whether  there  be  not  some  peculiar  absurdity 
in  our  very  manner  of  conception  concerning 
this  matter,  somewhat  contradictory  arising 
from  our  extremely  imperfect  view  of  things, 
it  is  impossible  to  say.  However,  this  much 
is  manifest,  that  the  whole  natural  world  and 
government  of  it  is  a  scheme  or  system  ;  not 
a  fixed,  but  a  progressive  one  :  a  scheme  in 
which  the  operation  of  various  means  takes  up 
a  great  length  of  time  before  the  ends  they 
tend  to  can  be  attained. — Angus,  p.  203. 

The  whole  end  for  which  God  made,  and 
thus  governs  the  world,  may  be  utterly  beyond 
the  reach  of  our  faculties  ;  there  may  be  some- 
what in  it  as  impossible  for  us  to  have  any 
conception  of,  as  for  a  blind  man  to  have  a 
conception  of  colours. — Angus,  p.  39. 


138      Butler's  Best  Passages 

Indeed  we  are  so  far  from  being  able  to 
judge  of  this,  that  we  are  not  judges  what  may 
be  the  necessary  means  of  raising  and  con- 
ducting one  person  to  the  highest  perfection 
and  happiness  of  his  nature.  Nay,  even  in 
the  little  affairs  of  the  present  life,  we  find 
men  of  different  educations  and  ranks  are  not 
competent  judges  of  the  conduct  of  each 
other.  Our  whole  nature  leads  us  to  ascribe 
all  moral  perfection  to  God,  and  to  deny  all 
imperfection  of  Him.  And  this  will  for  ever 
be  a  practical  proof  of  His  moral  character, 
to  such  as  v/ill  consider  what  a  practical  proof 
is  ;  because  it  is  the  voice  of  God  speaking  in 
us.  And  from  hence  we  conclude,  that  virtue 
must  be  the  happiness,  and  vice  the  misery, 
of  every  creature ;  and  that  regularity  and 
order  and  right  cannot  but  prevail  finally  in  a 
universe  under  His  government.  But  we  are 
in  no  sort  judges,  what  are  the  necessary 
means  of  accomplishing  this  end. — Angus, 
p.  10. 


Butler's  Best  Passages  139 


ON  PROBABILITY 

Probable  evidence,  in  its  very  nature,  affords 
but  an  imperfect  kind  of  information,  and  is 
to  be  considered  as  relative  only  to  beings 
of  limited  capacities.  For  nothing  which  is 
the  possible  object  of  knowledge,  whether 
past,  present,  or  future,  can  be  probable  to 
an  infinite  Intelligence,  since  it  cannot  but 
be  discerned  absolutely  as  it  is  in  itself, 
certainly  true,  or  certainly  false.  But  to  us, 
probability  is  the  very  guide  of  life. 

From  these  things  it  follows,  that  in 
questions  of  difficulty,  or  such  as  are  thought 
so,  where  more  satisfactory  evidence  cannot  be 
had,  or  is  not  seen ;  if  the  result  of  examina- 
tion be,  that  there  appears  upon  the  whole 
any  the  lowest  presumption  on  one  side,  and 
none  on  the  other,  or  a  greater  presumption 
on  one  side,  though  in  the  lowest  degree 
greater,  this  determines  the  question,  even  in 
matters  of  speculation  ;  and  in  matters  of 
practice,  will  lay  us  under  an  'absolute  and 


140      Butler's  Best  Passages 

formal  obligation,  in  point  of  prudence  and 
of  interest,  to  act  upon  that  presumption  or 
low  probability,  though  it  be  so  low  as  to  leave 
the  mind  in  very  great  doubt  which  is  the 
truth.  For  surely  a  man  is  as  really  bound  in 
prudence  to  do  what  upon  the  whole  appears, 
according  to  the  best  of  his  judgment,  to  be 
for  his  happiness,  as  what  he  certainly  knows 
to  be  so.  Nay,  further,  in  questions  of  great 
consequence,  a  reasonable  man  will  think  it 
concerns  him  to  remark  lower  probabilities 
and  presumptions  than  these  ;  such  as  amount 
to  no  more  than  showing  one  side  of  a 
question  to  be  as  supposable  and  credible  as 
the  other  ;  nay,  such  as  but  amount  to  much 
less  even  than  this.  For  numberless  instances 
might  be  mentioned  respecting  the  common 
pursuits  of  life,  where  a  man  would  be  thought, 
in  a  literal  sense,  distracted  who  would  not  act, 
and  with  great  application  too,  not  only  upon 
an  even  chance,  but  upon  much  less,  and 
where  the  probabiHty  or  chance  was  greatly 
against  his  succeeding. — Angus,  p.  5. 


Butler's  Best  Passages  141 

ON  KNOWLEDGE 

Knowledge  is  not  our  proper  happiness. 
Whoever  will  in  the  least  attend  to  the  thing 
will  see  that  it  is  the  gaining,  not  the  having 
of  it,  which  is  the  entertainment  of  the  mind  ; 
indeed,  if  the  proper  happiness  of  man  con- 
sisted in  knowledge,  considered  as  a  possession 
or  treasure,  men  who  are  possessed  of  the 
largest  share  would  have  a  very  ill  time  of  it, 
as  they  would  be  infinitely  more  sensible  than 
others  of  their  poverty  in  this  respect;  thus 
he  who  increases  knowledge  would  eminently 
increase  sorrow.  Men  of  deep  research  and 
curious  inquiry  should  just  be  put  in  mind 
not  to  mistake  what  they  are  doing.  If  their 
discoveries  serve  the  cause  of  virtue  and 
religion  in  the  way  of  proof,  motive  to 
practice,  or  assistance  in  it,  or  if  they  tend  to 
render  life  less  unhappy,  and  promote  its 
satisfactions,  then  they  are  most  usefully 
employed  ;  but  bringing  things  to  light,  alone 
and  of  itself,  is  of  no  manner  of  use  any 


142      Butler's  Best  Passages 

otherwise  than  as  an  entertainment  or  diver- 
sion. Neither  is  this  at  all  amiss  if  it  does 
not  take  up  the  time  which  should  be  employed 
in  better  work  ;  but  it  is  evident  that  there  is 
another  mark  set  up  for  us  to  aim  at,  another 
end  appointed  us  to  direct  our  lives  to  ;  an 
end  which  the  most  knowing  may  fail  of  and 
the  most  ignorant  arrive  at.  "  The  secret 
things  belong  unto  the  Lord  our  God  :  but 
those  things  which  are  revealed  belong  unto  us 
and  to  our  children  for  ever,  that  we  may  do  all 
the  words  of  this  law";  which  reflection  of 
Moses,  put  in  general  terms,  is,  that  the  only 
knowledge  which  is  of  any  avail  to  us  is  that 
which  teaches  us  our  duty,  or  assists  us  in  the 
discharge  of  it.  The  economy  of  the  universe, 
the  course  of  Nature,  Almighty  power  exerted 
in  the  creation  and  government  of  the  world, 
is  out  of  our  reach.  What  would  be  the 
consequence  if  we  could  really  get  an  insight 
into  these  things  is  very  uncertain  ;  whether  it 
would  assist  us  in,  or  divert  us  from,  what  we 
have  to  do  in  this  present  state.    If  then  there 


Butler's  Best  Passages  143 

be  a  sphere  of  knowledge,  of  contemplation 
and  employment,  level  to  our  capacities,  and 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  us,  we  ought 
surely  to  apply  ourselves  with  all  diligence  to 
this  our  proper  business,  and  esteem  every- 
thing else  nothing,  nothing  as  to  us  in  com- 
parison of  it.  Thus  Job,  discoursing  of 
natural  knowledge,  how  much  it  is  above  us, 
and  of  wisdom  in  general,  says,  "  God  under- 
standeth  the  way  thereof,  and  He  knoweth 
the  place  thereof.  And  unto  man  He  said, 
Behold  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  that  is  wisdom  ; 
and  to  depart  from  evil  is  understanding." 
Other  orders  of  creatures  may  perhaps  be  let 
into  the  secret  counsels  of  heaven,  and  have 
the  designs  and  methods  of  Providence,  in  the 
creation  and  government  of  the  world,  com- 
municated to  them ;  but  this  does  not  belong 
to  our  rank  or  condition.  "The  fear  of  the 
Lord,  and  to  depart  from  evil,"  is  the  only 
wisdom  which  man  should  aspire  after  as  his 
work  and  business.  The  same  is  said,  and 
with  the  same  connection  and  context,  in  the 


144      Butler's  Best  Passages 

conclusion  of  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes.  Our 
ignorance,  and  the  little  we  can  know  of  other 
things,  affords  a  reason  why  we  should  not 
perplex  ourselves  about  them  ;  but  no  way 
invalidates  that  which  is  the  "  conclusion  of 
the  whole  matter  :  Fear  God  and  keep  His 
commandments  :  for  this  is  the  whole  duty  of 
man."  So  that  Socrates  was  not  the  first  who 
endeavoured  to  draw  men  off  from  labouring 
after,  and  laying  stress  upon  other  knowledge, 
in  comparison  of  that  which  related  to  morals. 
Our  province  is  virtue  and  religion,  life  and 
manners  ;  the  science  of  improving  the  temper, 
and  making  the  heart  better.  This  is  the 
field  assigned  us  to  cultivate  :  how  much  it 
has  lain  neglected  is  indeed  astonishing. 
Virtue  is  demonstrably  the  happiness  of  man  ; 
it  consists  in  good  actions  proceeding  from 
a  good  principle,  temper,  or  heart.  Overt 
acts  are  entirely  in  our  power.  What  remains 
is,  that  we  learn  to  keep  our  heart,  to  govern 
and  regulate  our  passions,  mind,  affections, 
that  so  we  may  be  free  from  the  impotencies 


Butler's  Best  Passages  145 

of  fear,  envy,  malice,  covetousness,  ambition  ; 
that  we  may  be  clear  of  these,  considered  as  vices 
seated  in  the  heart — considered  as  constituting 
a  general  wrong  temper,  from  which  general 
wrong  frame  of  mind  all  the  mistaken  pursuits, 
and  far  the  greatest  part  of  the  unhappiness  of 
life,  proceed.  He  who  should  find  out  one 
rule  to  assist  us  in  this  work  would  deserve 
infinitely  better  of  mankind  than  all  the 
improvers  of  other  knowledge  put  together. — 
Angus ^  p.  525. 

ON   OUR  IGNORANCE 

Creation  is  absolutely  and  entirely  out  of 
our  depth,  and  beyond  the  extent  of  our 
utmost  reach.  And  yet  it  is  as  certain  that 
God  made  the  world,  as  it  is  certain  that  effects 
must  have  a  cause.  It  is  indeed  in  general  no 
more  than  effects,  that  the  most  knowing  are 
acquainted  with  :  for  as  to  causes,  they  are  as 
entirely  in  the  dark  as  the  most  ignorant. 
What  are  the  laws  by  which  matter  acts  upon 


146      Butler's  Best  Passages 

matter,  but  certain  effects  ;  which  some,  having 
observed  to  be  frequently  repeated,  have  re- 
duced to  general  rules  ?  The  real  nature  and 
essence  of  beings  likewise  is  what  we  are 
altogether  ignorant  of.  All  these  things  are 
so  entirely  out  of  our  reach,  that  we  have  not 
the  least  glimpse  of  them.  And  we  know 
little  more  of  ourselves,  than  we  do  of  the 
world  about  us  :  how  we  were  made,  how  our 
being  is  continued  and  preserved,  what  the 
faculties  of  our  minds  are,  and  upon  what  the 
power  of  exercising  them  depends.  "  I  am 
fearfully  and  wonderfully  made  :  marvellous 
are  Thy  works,  and  that  my  soul  knoweth 
right  well."  Our  own  nature,  and  the  objects 
we  are  surrounded  with,  serve  to  raise  our 
curiosity  ;  but  we  are  quite  out  of  a  condition 
of  satisfying  it.  Every  secret  which  is  dis- 
closed, every  discovery  which  is  made,  every 
new  effect  which  is  brought  to  view,  serves  to 
convince  us  of  numberless  more  which  remain 
concealed,  and  which  we  had  before  no  sus- 
picion of.    And  what  if  we  were  acquainted 


Butler's  Best  Passages  147 

with  the  whole  creation,  in  the  same  way  and 
as  thoroughly  as  we  are  with  any  single  object 
in  it  ?  What  would  all  this  natural  knowledge 
amount  to  ?  It  must  be  a  low  curiosity  in- 
deed which  such  superficial  knowledge  could 
satisfy.  On  the  contrary,  would  it  not  serve 
to  convince  us  of  our  ignorance  still ;  and  to 
raise  our  desire  of  knowing  the  nature  of 
things  themselves,  the  author,  the  cause,  and 
the  end  of  them  ? — Angus,  p.  518. 

I  am  afraid  we  think  too  highly  of  our- 
selves ;  of  our  rank  in  the  creation,  and  of 
what  is  due  to  us.  What  sphere  of  action, 
what  business  is  assigned  to  man,  that  he  has 
not  capacities  and  knowledge  fully  equal  to 
It  is  manifest  he  has  reason,  and  knowledge,  and 
faculties  superior  to  the  business  of  the  present 
world  :  faculties  which  appear  superfluous,  if 
we  do  not  take  in  the  respect  which  they  have 
to  somewhat  further,  and  beyond  it.  If  to 
acquire  knowledge  were  our  proper  end,  we 
should  indeed  be  but  poorly  provided  :  but  if 


148      Butler's  Best  Passages 

somewhat  else  be  our  business  and  duty,  we 
may,  notwithstanding  our  ignorance,  be  well 
enough  furnished  for  it ;  and  the  observation 
of  our  ignorance  may  be  of  assistance  to  us  in 
the  discharge  oi  it. —Angus,  p.  522. 

The  conclusion  is,  that  in  all  lowliness  of 
mind  we  set  lightly  by  ourselves ;  that  we 
form  our  temper  to  an  implicit  submission  to 
the  Divine  Majesty  ;  beget  within  ourselves  an 
absolute  resignation  to  all  the  methods  of  His 
providence,  in  His  dealings  with  the  children 
of  men  :  that,  in  the  deepest  humility  of  our 
souls,  we  prostrate  ourselves  before  Him,  and 
join  in  that  celestial  song  :  "  Great  and  mar- 
vellous are  Thy  works,  Lord  God  Almighty  ; 
just  and  true  are  Thy  ways.  Thou  king  of 
saints  !  Who  shall  not  fear  Thee,  O  Lord, 
and  glorify  Thy  name  ?" — Angus,  p.  527. 

ON  RICHES 

The  constitution  of  things  being  such,  that 
the  labour  of  one  man,  or  the  united  labour  of 


Butler's  Best  Passages  149 

several,  is  sufficient  to  procure  more  necessaries 
than  he  or  they  stand  in  need  of,  which  it  may 
be  supposed  was,  in  some  degree,  the  case,  even 
in  the  first  ages  ;  this  immediately  gave  room 
for  riches  to  arise  in  the  world,  and  for  men's 
acquiring  them  by  honest  means  ;  by  diligence, 
frugality,  and  prudent  management.  Thus 
some  would  very  soon  acquire  greater  plenty 
of  necessaries  than  they  had  occasion  for  ;  and 
others  by  contrary  means,  or  by  cross  accidents, 
would  be  in  want  of  them.  And  he  who 
should  supply  their  wants  would  have  the 
property  in  a  proportionable  labour  of  their 
hands,  which  he  would  scarce  fail  to  make  use 
of  instead  of  his  own,  or  perhaps  together  with 
them,  to  provide  future  necessaries  in  greater 
plenty.  Riches  then  were  first  bestowed  upon 
the  world,  as  they  are  still  continued  in  it,  by 
the  blessing  of  God  upon  the  industry  of  men, 
in  the  use  of  their  understanding  and  strength. 
Riches  themselves  have  always  this  source, 
though  the  possession  of  them  is  conveyed  to 
particular  persons  by  different  channels.  Yet 


150      Butler's  Best  Passages 

still,  the  hand  of  the  diligent  maketh  rich,  and, 
other  circumstances  being  equal,  in  proportion 
to  its  diligence. 

But  to  return  to  the  first  rich  man,  whom 
we  left  in  possession  of  dependants,  and  plenty 
of  necessaries  for  himself  and  them.  A  family 
would  not  be  long  in  this  state,  before  con- 
veniences, somewhat  ornamental  and  for  enter- 
tainment, would  be  wanted,  looked  for,  and 
found  out.  And,  by  degrees,  these  secondary 
wants,  and  inventions  for  the  supply  of  them, 
the  fruits  of  leisure  and  ease,  came  to  employ 
much  of  men's  time  and  labour.  Hence  a  new 
species  of  riches  came  into  the  world,  consisting 
of  things  which  it  might  have  done  well  enough 
without,  yet  thought  desirable,  as  affording 
pleasure  to  the  imagination  or  the  senses. 
And  these  went  on  increasing  till,  at  length, 
the  superfluities  of  life  took  in  a  vastly  larger 
compass  of  things  than  the  necessaries  of  it. 
Thus  luxury  made  its  inroad,  and  all  the 
numerous  train  of  evils  its  attendants ;  of 
which  poverty,  as  bad  an  one  as  we  may 


Butler's  Best  Passages  151 

account  it,  is  far  from  being  the  worst. 
Indeed  the  hands  of  the  generality  must  be 
employed  ;  and  a  very  few  of  them  would  now 
be  sufficient  to  provide  the  world  with  neces- 
saries ;  and  therefore  the  rest  of  them  must 
be  employed  about  what  may  be  called  super- 
fluities ;  which  could  not  be,  if  these  super- 
fluities were  not  made  use  of.  Yet  the  desire 
of  such  things  insensibly  becomes  immoderate, 
and  the  use  of  them,  also  of  course,  degenerates 
into  luxury  ;  which,  in  every  age,  has  been  the 
dissipation  of  riches,  and,  in  every  sense,  the 
ruin  of  those  who  were  possessed  of  them  : 
and  therefore  cannot  be  too  much  guarded 
against  by  all  opulent  cities.  And  as  men 
sink  into  luxury  as  much  from  fashion  as  direct 
inclination,  the  richer  sort  together  may  easily 
restrain  this  vice,  in  almost  what  degree  they 
please  :  and  a  few  of  the  chief  of  them  may 
contribute  a  great  deal  towards  the  restraining 
it. —  Gladstone,  ii.  p.  296. 


Blessed  are  they  who  employ  their  riches  in 


152      Butler's  Best  Passages 

promoting  so  excellent  a  design.  The  tem- 
poral advantages  of  them  are  far  from  coming 
up,  in  enjoyment,  to  what  they  promise  at  a 
distance.  But  the  distinguished  privilege,  the 
prerogative  of  riches,  is,  that  they  increase  our 
power  of  doing  good.  This  is  their  proper 
use.  In  proportion  as  men  make  this  use  of 
them,  they  imitate  Almighty  God  ;  and  co- 
operate together  with  Him  in  promoting  the 
happiness  of  the  world  ;  and  may  expect  the 
most  favourable  judgment  which  their  case  will 
admit  of,  at  the  last  day,  upon  the  general, 
repeated  maxim  of  the  gospel,  that  we  shall 
then  be  treated  ourselves  as  we  now  treat 
others.  They  have,  moreover,  the  prayers  of 
all  good  men,  those  of  them  particularly  whom 
they  have  befriended  ;  and  by  such  exercise  of 
charity,  they  improve  within  themselves  the 
temper  of  it,  which  is  the  very  temper  of 
heaven.  Consider  next  the  peculiar  force  with 
which  this  branch  of  charity,  almsgiving,  is 
recommended  to  us  in  these  words :  He  that 
hath  pity  upon  the  poor  lendeth  unto  the  Lord  i 


Butler's  Best  Passages  153 

and  in  these  of  our  Saviour,  Verily  I  say  unto 
you,  inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it,  relieved  the 
sick  and  needy,  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  My 
brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  Me.  Beware  you 
do  not  explain  away  these  passages  of  Scripture 
under  the  notion  that  they  have  been  made  to 
serve  superstitious  purposes  ;  but  ponder  them 
fairly  in  your  heart,  and  you  will  feel  them  to 
be  of  irresistible  weight. — Gladstone,  ii.  p.  394. 

ON  CHARITY 

The  temper  and  behaviour  of  charity  is 
explained  at  large  in  that  known  passage  of 
St.  Paul  :  Charity  sufFereth  long,  and  is  kind ; 
charity  envieth  not,  doth  not  behave  itself  un- 
seemly, seeketh  not  her  own,  thinketh  no  evil, 
beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth 
all  things.  As  to  the  meaning  of  the  expressions, 
seeketh  not  her  own,  thinketh  no  evil,  believeth 
all  things — however  those  expressions  may  be 
explained  away,  this  meekness,  and  in  some 
degree  easiness  of  temper,  readiness  to  forego 


154      Butler's  Best  Passages 

our  right  for  the  sake  of  peace  as  well  as  in 
the  way  of  compassion,  freedom  from  mis- 
trust, and  disposition  to  believe  well  of  our 
neighbour,  this  general  temper,  I  say,  accom- 
panies and  is  plainly  the  effect  of  love  and 
good-will.  And,  though  such  is  the  world 
in  which  we  live,  that  experience  and  know- 
ledge of  it  not  only  may,  but  must,  beget 
in  us  greater  regard  to  ourselves,  and  doubt- 
fulness of  the  characters  of  others,  than  is 
natural  to  mankind  ;  yet  these  ought  not  to 
be  carried  further  than  the  nature  and  course 
of  things  make  necessary.  It  is  still  true, 
even  in  the  present  state  of  things,  bad  as  it 
is,  that  a  real  good  man  had  rather  be  de- 
ceived, than  be  suspicious  ;  had  rather  forego 
his  known  right,  than  run  the  venture  of 
doing  even  a  hard  thing.  This  is  the  general 
temper  of  that  charity,  of  which  the  apostle 
asserts,  that  if  he  had  it  not,  giving  his  body 
to  be  burned  would  avail  him  nothing ;  and 
which,  he  says,  shall  never  fail. 

The  happy  influence  of  this  temper  extends 


Butler's  Best  Passages  155 

to  every  different  relation  and  circumstance  in 
human  life.  It  plainly  renders  a  man  better, 
more  to  be  desired,  as  to  all  the  respects  and 
relations  we  can  stand  in  to  each  other.  The 
benevolent  man  is  disposed  to  make  use  of  all 
external  advantages  in  such  a  manner  as  shall 
contribute  to  the  good  of  others,  as  well  as 
to  his  own  satisfaction.  His  own  satisfaction 
consists  in  this.  He  will  be  easy  and  kind  to 
his  dependants,  compassionate  to  the  poor  and 
distressed,  friendly  to  all  with  whom  he  has  to 
do.  This  includes  the  good  neighbour,  parent, 
master,  magistrate  ;  and  such  a  behaviour 
would  plainly  make  dependence,  inferiority, 
and  even  servitude,  easy.  So  that  a  good  or 
charitable  man  of  superior  rank  in  wisdom, 
fortune,  authority,  is  a  common  blessing  to 
the  place  he  lives  in ;  happiness  grows  under 
his  influence.  This  good  principle  in  inferiors 
would  discover  itself  in  paying  respect,  grati- 
tude, obedience,  as  due.  It  were,  therefore, 
methinks,  one  just  way  of  trying  one's  own 
character,  to  ask  ourselves,  Am  I  in  reality 


156      Butler's  Best  Passages 

a  better  master  or  servant,  a  better  friend,  a 
better  neighbour,  than  such  and  such  persons  ; 
whom,  perhaps,  I  may  think  not  to  deserve 
the  character  of  virtue  and  religion  so  much 
as  myself? — Angus,  p.  491. 

ON  HAPPINESS 

Every  species  of  creatures  is,  we  see,  de- 
signed for  a  particular  way  of  life  ;  to  which, 
the  nature,  the  capacities,  temper,  and  quali- 
fications of  each  species,  are  as  necessary  as 
their  external  circumstances.  Both  come  into 
the  notion  of  such  state,  or  particular  way  of 
life,  and  are  constituent  parts  of  it.  Change 
a  man's  capacities  or  character  to  the  degree 
in   which    it    is    conceivable    they   may  be 

changed,   and   he   would   be   altogether  in- 
to   '  t) 

capable  of  a  human  course  of  life  and  human 
happiness  ;  as  incapable  as  if,  his  nature  con- 
tinuing unchanged,  he  were  placed  in  a  world 
where  he  had  no  sphere  of  action,  nor  any 
objects  to  answer  his  appetites,  passions,  and 


Butler's  Best  Passages       1 157 

affections  of  any  sort.  One  thing  is  set  over 
against  another,  as  an  ancient  writer  expresses 
it.  Our  nature  corresponds  to  our  external 
condition.  Without  this  correspondence,  there 
would  be  no  possibility  of  any  such  thing  as 
human  life  and  human  happiness  ;  which  life 
and  happiness  are,  therefore,  a  result  from  our 
nature  and  condition  jointly ;  meaning  by 
human  life,  not  Hving  in  the  literal  sense,  but 
the  whole  complex  notion  commonly  under- 
stood by  those  words.  So  that  without  deter- 
mining what  will  be  the  employment  and 
happiness,  the  particular  life  of  good  men 
hereafter,  there  must  be  some  determinate 
capacities,  some  necessary  character  and  quali- 
fications, without  which  persons  cannot  but 
be  utterly  incapable  of  it  :  in  like  manner, 
as  there  must  be  some,  without  which  men 
would  be  incapable  of  their  present  state  of 
life. — Angus,  p.  88. 

Perhaps  an  infinitely  perfect  Mind  may  be 
pleased  with  seeing  His  creatures  behave  suit- 


158       Butler's  Best  Passages 

ably  to  the  nature  which  He  has  given  them  ; 
to  the  relations  which  He  has  placed  them  in 
to  each  other  ;  and  to  that,  which  they  stand 
in  to  Himself :  that  relation  to  Himself,  which, 
during  their  existence,  is  even  necessary, 
and  which  is  the  most  important  one  of  all : 
perhaps,  1  say,  an  infinitely  perfect  Mind  may 
be  pleased  with  this  moral  piety  of  moral 
agents,  in  and  for  itself,  as  well  as  upon 
account  of  its  being  essentially  conducive  to 
the  happiness  of  His  creation.  Or  the  whole 
end  for  which  God  made,  and  thus  governs 
the  world,  may  be  utterly  beyond  the  reach 
of  our  faculties  :  there  may  be  somewhat  in 
it  as  impossible  for  us  to  have  any  conception 
of,  as  for  a  blind  man  to  have  a  conception 
of  colours.  But  however  this  be,  it  is  certain 
matter  of  universal  experience,  that  the  general 
method  of  Divine  administration  is,  fore- 
warning us,  or  giving  us  capacities  to  foresee, 
with  more  or  less  clearness,  that  if  we  act  so 
and  so,  we  shall  have  such  enjoyments  ;  if  so 
and  so,  such  sufferings ;  and  giving  us  those 


Butler's  Best  Passages  159 

enjoyments,  and  making  us  feel  those  suffer- 
ings, in  consequence  of  our  actions. — Angus, 
P-  39- 

ON  BENEVOLENCE 

The  objects  and  due  extent  of  this  affection 
will  be  understood  by  attending  to  the  nature 
of  it,  and  to  the  nature  and  circumstances  of 
mankind  in  this  world.  The  love  of  our 
neighbour  is  the  same  with  charity,  benevo- 
lence, or  goodwill :  it  is  an  affection  to  the 
good  and  happiness  of  our  fellow-creatures. 
This  implies  in  it  a  disposition  to  produce 
happiness  :  and  this  is  the  simple  notion  of 
goodness,  which  appears  so  amiable  wherever 
we  meet  with  it.  From  hence  it  is  easy  to 
see,  that  the  perfection  of  goodness  consists 
in  love  to  the  whole  universe.  This  is  the 
perfection  of  Almighty  God. — Angus,  p.  483. 

The  Scripture,  not  being  a  book  of  theory 
and  speculation,  but  a  plain  rule  of  life  for 
mankind,  has  with  the  utmost  possible  pro- 


i6o      Butler's  Best  Passages 

priety  put  the  principle  of  virtue  upon  the 
love  of  our  neighbour,  which  is  that  part  of 
the  universe,  that  part  of  mankind,  that  part 
of  our  country,  which  comes  under  our  im- 
mediate notice,  acquaintance,  and  influence, 
and  with  which  we  have  to  do.  —  Angus, 
p.  484. 

"  O  Almighty  God,  inspire  us  with  this 
Divine  principle  ;  kill  in  us  all  the  seeds  of 
envy  and  ill-will  ;  and  help  us,  by  cultivating 
within  ourselves  the  love  of  our  neighbour, 
to  improve  in  the  love  of  Thee.  Thou  hast 
placed  us  in  various  kindreds,  friendships, 
and  relations,  as  the  school  of  discipline  for 
our  affections :  help  us,  by  the  due  exercise 
of  them,  to  improve  to  perfection  ;  till  all 
partial  affection  be  lost  in  that  entire  universal 
one,  and  Thou,  O  God,  shalt  be  all  in  all." — 
Angus,  p.  496. 


ON  ILL-WILL 

lU-will  not  only  never  speaks  but  never 


Butler's  Best  Passages  i6r 

thinks  well,  of  the  person  towards  whom  it 
is  exercised.  Thus,  in  cases  of  offence  and 
enmity,  the  whole  character  and  behaviour 
is  considered  with  an  eye  to  that  particular 
part  which  has  offended  us,  and  the  whole 
man  appears  monstrous,  without  anything 
right  or  human  in  him,  whereas  the  resent- 
ment should  surely  at  least  be  confined  to 
that  particular  part  of  behaviour  which  gave 
offence,  since  the  other  parts  of  a  man's  life 
and  character  stand  just  the  same  as  they 
did  before. — Angus,  p.  452. 


ON   PARTY  SPIRIT 

And  as  to  the  spirit  of  party,  which  un- 
happily prevails  amongst  mankind,  whatever 
are  the  distinctions  which  serve  for  a  supply  to 
it,  some  or  other  of  which  have  obtained  in  all 
ages  and  countries  ;  one,  who  is  thus  friendly 
to  his  kind,  will  immediately  make  due  allow- 
ances for  it,  as  what  cannot  but  be  amongst 
such  creatures  as  men,  in  such  a  world  as  this. 

L 


i62      Butler's  Best  Passages 

And  as  wrath  and  fury  and  overbearing  upon 
these  occasions  proceed,  as  I  may  speak,  from 
men's  feeling  only  on  their  own  side  ;  so  a 
common  feeling  for  others  as  well  as  for  our- 
selves, would  render  us  sensible  to  this  truth, 
which  it  is  strange  can  have  so  little  influence  ; 
that  we  ourselves  differ  from  others,  just  as 
much  as  they  do  from  us.  I  put  the  matter 
in  this  way,  because  it  can  scarce  be  expected 
that  the  generality  of  men  should  see  that 
those  things,  which  are  made  the  occasions 
of  dissension  and  fomenting  the  party  spirit, 
are  really  nothing  at  all  :  but  it  may  be  ex- 
pected from  all  people,  how  much  soever  they 
are  in  earnest  about  their  respective  peculiar- 
ities, that  humanity,  and  common  goodwill  to 
their  fellow-creatures,  should  moderate  and 
restrain  that  wretched  spirit. — Angus,  p.  492. 

ON  MISUNDERSTANDING 

If  there  be  any  probability  of  a  misunder- 
standing in  the  case,  either  from  our  imagining 


Butler's  Best  Passages  163 

we  are  injured  when  we  are  not,  or  representing 
the  injury  to  ourselves  as  greater  than  it  really 
is  ;  one  would  hope  an  intimation  of  this  sort 
might  be  kindly  received,  and  that  people 
would  be  glad  to  find  the  injury  not  so  great 
as  they  imagined.  Therefore,  without  knowing 
particulars,  I  take  upon  me  to  assure  all 
persons  who  think  they  have  received  in- 
dignities or  injurious  treatment,  that  they  may 
depend  upon  it,  as  in  a  manner  certain,  that 
the  offence  is  not  so  great  as  they  themselves 
imagine.  We  are  in  such  a  peculiar  situation, 
with  respect  to  injuries  done  to  ourselves,  that 
we  can  scarce  any  more  see  them  as  they  really 
are,  than  our  eye  can  see  itself.  If  we  could 
place  ourselves  at  a  due  distance,  i.e.  be  really 
unprejudiced,  we  should  frequently  discern 
that  to  be  in  reality  inadvertence  and  mistake 
in  our  enemy,  which  we  now  fancy  we  see  to 
be  malice  or  scorn.  From  this  proper  point 
of  view  we  should  likewise  in  all  probability 
see  something  of  these  latter  in  ourselves,  and 
most  certainly  a  great  deal  of  the  former. 


164      Butler's  Best  Passages 

Thus  the  indignity  or  injury  would  almost 
infinitely  lessen,  or  perhaps  at  last  come  out 
to  be  nothing  at  all.  Self-love  is  a  medium 
of  a  peculiar  kind — in  these  cases  it  magnifies 
everything  vi^hich  is  amiss  in  others,  at  the 
same  time  that  it  lessens  everything  amiss  in 
ourselves. — Angus,  p.  452. 


ON  PEEVISHNESS 

Of  a  less  boisterous,  but  not  of  a  less 
innocent  kind  than  the  passion  of  anger,  is 
peevishness,  which  I  mention  with  pity,  with 
real  pity,  to  the  unhappy  creatures  who,  from 
their  inferior  station,  or  other  circumstances 
and  relations,  are  obliged  to  be  in  the  way  of, 
and  to  serve  for  a  supply  to  it.  Both  these, 
for  aught  that  I  can  see,  are  one  and  the  same 
principle,  but  as  it  takes  root  in  minds  of 
different  makes,  it  appears  differently,  and  so 
is  come  to  be  distinguished  by  different  names. 
That  which  in  a  more  feeble  temper  is 
peevishness,  and   languidly  discharges  itself 


Butler's  Best  Passages  165 

upon  everything  which  comes  in  its  way,  the 
same  principle,  in  a  temper  of  greater  force 
and  stronger  passions,  becomes  rage  and  fury. 
In  one  the  humour  discharges  itself  at  once, 
in  the  other  it  is  continually  discharging. 
This  is  the  account  of  passion  and  peevishness, 
as  distinct  from  each  other,  and  appearing  in 
different  persons  ;  it  is  no  objection  against 
the  truth  of  it  that  they  are  both  to  be  seen 
sometimes  in  one  and  the  same  person. — 
Angus,  p.  440. 

ON  RESIGNATION 

It  may  be  imagined  that  nothing  but  afflic- 
tions can  give  occasion  for  or  require  this 
virtue  ;  that  it  can  have  no  respect  to,  nor  be 
any  way  necessary  to  qualify  for,  a  state  of 
perfect  happiness  ;  but  it  is  not  experience 
which  can  make  us  think  thus.  Prosperity 
itself,  whilst  anything  supposed  desirable  is 
not  ours,  begets  extravagant  and  unbounded 
thoughts.    Imagination  is  altogether  as  much 


i66      Butler's  Best  Passages 

a  source  of  discontent,  as  anything  in  our 
external  condition.  It  is  indeed  true,  that 
there  can  be  no  scope  for  patience  when 
sorrow  shall  be  no  more  ;  but  there  may  be 
need  of  a  temper  of  mind  which  shall  have 
been  formed  by  patience.  For  though  self- 
love,  considered  merely  as  an  active  principle 
leading  us  to  pursue  our  chief  interest,  cannot 
but  be  uniformly  coincident  with  the  principle 
of  obedience  to  God's  commands,  our  interest 
being  rightly  understood  ;  because  this  obedi- 
ence and  the  pursuit  of  our  own  chief  interest 
must  be  in  every  case  one  and  the  same  thing ; 
yet  it  may  be  questioned  whether  self-love,  con- 
sidered merely  as  the  desire  of  our  own  interest 
or  happiness,  can,  from  its  nature,  be  thus  abso- 
lutely and  uniformly  coincident  with  the  will 
of  God ;  any  more  than  particular  affections 
can  ;  coincident  in  such  sort,  as  not  to  be 
liable  to  be  excited  upon  occasions  and  in 
degrees  impossible  to  be  gratified  consistently 
with  the  constitution  of  things,  or  the  Divine 
appointments.     So  that  habits  of  resignation 


Butler's  Best  Passages  167 

may,  upon  this  account,  be  requisite  for  all 
creatures  ;  habits,  I  say,  which  signify  what  is 
formed  by  use.  However,  in  general  it  is 
obvious  that  both  self-love  and  particular 
affections  in  human  creatures,  considered  only 
as  passive  feelings,  distort  and  rend  the  mind, 
and  therefore  stand  in  need  of  discipline. 
Now,  denial  of  those  particular  affections,  in 
the  course  of  active  virtue  and  obedience  to 
God's  will,  has  a  tendency  to  moderate  them  ; 
and  seems  also  to  have  a  tendency  to  habituate 
the  mind  to  be  easy  and  satisfied  with  that 
degree  of  happiness  which  is  allotted  us,  i.e. 
to  moderate  self-love.  But  the  proper  dis- 
cipline for  resignation  is  affliction. 

For,  a  right  behaviour  under  that  trial, 
recollecting  ourselves  so  as  to  consider  it  in 
the  view  in  which  religion  teaches  us  to  con- 
sider it,  as  from  the  hand  of  God  ;  receiving  it 
as  what  He  appoints,  or  thinks  proper  to  per- 
mit, in  His  world  and  under  His  government ; 
this  will  habituate  the  mind  to  a  dutiful  sub- 
mission ;  and  such  submission,  together  with 


i68       Butler's  Best  Passages 

the  active  principle  of  obedience,  makes  up  the 
temper  and  character  in  us,  which  answers  to 
His  sovereignty,  and  which  absolutely  belongs 
to  the  condition  of  our  being,  as  dependent 
creatures.  Nor  can  it  be  said  that  this  is  only 
breaking  the  mind  to  a  submission  to  mere 
power  ;  for  mere  power  may  be  accidental, 
and  precarious,  and  usurped;  but  it  is  forming 
within  ourselves  the  temper  of  resignation  to 
His  rightful  authority,  who  is  by  nature 
supreme  over  all. — Angus,  p.  107. 

Resignation  to  the  will  of  God  is  the  whole 
of  piety  ;  it  includes  in  it  all  that  is  good,  and 
is  a  source  of  the  most  settled  quiet  and 
composure  of  mind.  There  is  the  general 
principle  of  submission  in  our  nature.  Man 
is  not  so  constituted  as  to  desire  things,  and 
be  uneasy  in  the  want  of  them,  in  proportion 
to  their  known  value  ;  many  other  considera- 
tions come  in  to  determine  the  degrees  of 
desire,  particularly  whether  the  advantage  we 
take  view  of  be  within  the  sphere  of  our  rank. 


Butler's  Best  Passages  169 

Who  ever  felt  uneasiness  upon  observing  any 
of  the  advantages  brute  creatures  have  over 
us  ?  and  yet  it  is  plain  they  have  several.  It 
is  the  same  with  respect  to  advantages  belong- 
ing to  creatures  of  a  superior  order  ;  thus, 
though  we  see  a  thing  to  be  highly  valuable, 
yet  that  it  does  not  belong  to  our  condition 
of  being  is  sufficient  to  suspend  our  desires 
after  it,  to  make  us  rest  satisfied  without  such 
advantage.  Now  there  is  just  the  same  reason 
for  quiet  resignation  in  the  want  of  everything 
equally  unattainable  and  out  of  our  reach  in 
particular,  though  others  of  our  species  be 
possessed  of  it.  All  this  may  be  appHed  to 
the  whole  of  life,  to  positive  inconveniences  as 
well  as  wants  ;  not  indeed  to  the  sensations 
of  pain  and  sorrow,  but  to  all  the  uneasiness 
of  reflection,  murmuring,  and  discontent.  This 
is  human  nature  formed  to  compliance,  yield- 
ing, submission  of  temper.  We  find  the 
principles  of  it  within  us,  and  every  one 
exercises  it  towards  some  objects  or  other, 
i.e.  feels  it  with  regard  to  some  persons  and 


I/O      Butler's  Best  Passages 

some  circumstances.  Now  this  is  an  excellent 
foundation  of  a  reasonable  and  religious  resig- 
nation. 

Nature  teaches  and  inclines  us  to  take  up 
with  our  lot ;  the  consideration  that  the  course 
of  things  is  unalterable  hath  a  tendency  to 
quiet  the  mind  under  it,  to  beget  a  submission 
of  temper  to  it ;  but  when  we  can  add  that 
this  unalterable  course  is  appointed  and  con- 
tinued by  Infinite  wisdom  and  goodness,  how 
absolute  should  be  our  submission,  how  entire 
our  trust  and  dependence  ! — Angus,  p.  508. 

Our  resignation  to  the  will  of  God  may  be 
said  to  be  perfect  when  our  wiU  is  lost  and 
resolved  up  into  His ;  when  we  rest  in  His 
will  as  our  end,  as  being  itself  most  just,  and 
right,  and  good  ;  and  where  is  the  impossibility 
of  such  an  affection  to  what  is  just,  and  right, 
and  good,  such  a  loyalty  of  heart  to  the 
Governor  of  the  Universe  as  shall  prevail  over 
all  sinister,  indirect  desires  of  our  own  ? 
Neither  is  this  at  bottom  anything  more  than 


Butler's  Best  Passages  171 

faith,  and  honesty,  and  fairness  of  mind,  in  a 
more  enlarged  sense,  indeed,  than  those  words 
are  commonly  used  ;  and  as,  in  common  cases, 
fear  and  hope  and  other  passions  are  raised  in 
us  by  their  respective  objects,  so  this  sub- 
mission of  heart  and  soul  and  mind,  this 
religious  resignation,  would  be  as  naturally 
produced  by  our  having  just  conceptions  of 
Almighty  God  and  a  real  sense  of  His  presence 
with  us.  In  how  low  a  degree  soever  this 
temper  usually  prevails  amongst  men,  yet  it  is 
a  temper  right  in  itself ;  it  is  what  we  owe  to 
our  Creator,  it  is  particularly  suitable  to  our 
mortal  condition,  and  to  what  we  should 
endeavour  after  for  our  own  sakes  in  our 
passage  through  such  a  world  as  this,  where 
is  nothing  upon  which  we  can  rest  or  depend, 
nothing  but  what  we  are  liable  to  be  deceived 
and  disappointed  in.  Thus  we  might  acquaint 
ourselves  with  God  and  be  at  peace.  This  is 
piety  and  religion  in  the  strictest  sense,  con- 
sidered as  a  habit  of  mind,  an  habitual  sense  of 
God's  presence  with  us,  being  affected  towards 


172      Butler's  Best  Passages 

Him,  as  present,  in  the  manner  His  superior 
nature  requires  from  such  a  creature  as  man. 
This  is  to  walk  with  God. — Angus,  p.  510. 

ON  DEVOTION 

The  nature  of  devotion  or  religious  worship 
consists  in  the  actual  exercise  of  those  affec- 
tions towards  God  which  are  supposed  habitual 
in  good  men.  He  is  always  equally  present 
with  us,  but  we  are  so  much  taken  up  with 
sensible  things  that,  "  Lo,  He  goeth  by  me, 
and  I  see  Him  not  ;  He  passeth  on  also,  but  1 
perceive  Him  not."  Devotion  is  retirement 
from  the  world  He  has  made  to  Him  alone  ; 
it  is  to  withdraw  from  the  avocations  of  sense, 
to  employ  our  attention  wholly  upon  Him 
as  upon  an  object  actually  present,  to  yield 
ourselves  up  to  the  influence  of  the  Divine 
Presence,  and  to  give  full  scope  to  the  affec- 
tions of  gratitude,  love,  reverence,  trust,  and 
dependence  ;  of  which  Infinite  power,  wisdom, 
and  goodness  is  the  natural  and  only  adequate 


Butler's  Best  Passages  173 

object.  We  may  apply  to  the  whole  of 
devotion  those  words  of  the  son  of  Sirach, 
"When  you  glorify  the  Lord,  exalt  Him  as 
much  as  you  can,  for  even  yet  will  He  far 
exceed ;  and  when  you  exalt  Him  put  forth 
all  your  strength  and  be  not  weary,  for  you 
can  never  go  far  enough."  Our  most  raised 
affections  of  every  kind  cannot  but  fall  short 
and  be  disproportionate,  when  an  infinite 
Being  is  the  object  of  them.  This  is  the 
highest  exercise  and  employment  of  mind  that 
a  creature  is  capable  of.  As  this  divine  service 
and  worship  is  itself  absolutely  due  to  God,  so 
also  is  it  necessary,  in  order  to  a  further  end, 
to  keep  alive  upon  our  minds  a  sense  of  His 
authority,  a  sense  that,  in  our  ordinary 
behaviour  amongst  men  we  act  under  Him  as 
our  Governor  and  Judge. — Angus,  p.  510. 

God  cannot  approve  of  anything  but  what  is 
in  itself  Right,  Fit,  Just.  We  should  worship 
and  endeavour  to  obey  Him  with  this  con- 
sciousness and  recollection.     To  endeavour 


174      Butler's  Best  Passages 

to  please  a  man  merely,  is  a  different  thing 
from  endeavouring  to  please  him  as  a  wise  and 
good  man,  i.e.  endeavouring  to  please  him  on 
the  particular  way,  of  behaving  towards  him 
as  we  think  the  relations  we  stand  in  to  him, 
and  the  intercourse  we  have  with  him,  require. 
Almighty  God  is,  to  be  sure,  infinitely 
removed  from  all  those  human  weaknesses 
which  we  express  by  the  words  captious,  apt 
to  take  offence,  etc.  But  an  unthinking  world 
does  not  consider  what  may  be  absolutely  due 
to  Him  from  all  creatures  capable  of  consider- 
ing themselves  His  creatures.  Recollect  the 
idea,  inadequate  as  it  is,  which  we  have  of 
God,  and  the  idea  of  ourselves  and  carelessness 
with  regard  to  Him,  whether  we  are  to  worship 
Him  at  all,  whether  we  worship  Him  in  a 
right  manner,  or  conceited  confidence  that 
we  do  so,  will  seem  to  imply  unspeakable 
presumption.  Neither  do  we  know  what 
necessary,  unalterable  connection  there  may  be 
between  moral  right  and  happiness,  moral 
wrong  and  misery,    Sincerity  is  doubtless  the 


Butler's  Best  Passages  175 

thing,  and  not  whether  we  hit  the  right  manner, 
etc.  But  a  sense  of  the  imperfection  of  our 
worship,  apprehension  that  it  may  be,  and  a 
degree  of  fear  that  it  is,  in  some  respects 
erroneous,  may  perhaps  be  a  temper  of  mind 
not  unbecoming  such  poor  creatures  as  we  are, 
in  our  addresses  to  God.  In  proportion  as  we 
are  assured  that  we  are  honest  and  sincere, 
we  may  rest  satisfied  that  God  cannot  be 
offended  with  us,  but  indifference  whether 
what  we  do  be  materially,  or  in  the  nature  of 
the  thing  abstracted  from  our  way  of  consider- 
ing it.  Good  and  Right, — such  indifference  is 
utterly  inconsistent  with  Sincerity. — Steere, 
p.  7. 

ON  THE  CHURCH 

As  Christianity  served  these  ends  and  pur- 
poses, when  it  was  first  published,  by  the 
miraculous  publication  itself,  so  it  was  intended 
to  serve  the  same  purposes  in  future  ages  by 
means  of  the  settlement  of  a  visible  church,  of 
a  society,  distinguished  from  common  ones 


176       Butler's  Best  Passages 

and  from  the  rest  of  the  world  by  peculiar 
religious  institutions,  by  an  instituted  method 
of  instruction  and  an  instituted  form  of 
external  religion.  Miraculous  powers  were 
given  to  the  first  preachers  of  Christianity  in 
order  to  their  introducing  it  into  the  world ; 
a  visible  church  was  established  in  order  to  con- 
tinue it  and  carry  it  on  successively  throughout 
all  ages.  Had  Moses  and  the  prophets,  Christ 
and  His  apostles,  only  taught,  and  by  miracles 
proved,  religion  to  their  contemporaries,  the 
benefits  of  their  instructions  would  have 
reached  but  to  a  small  part  of  mankind. 
Christianity  must  have  been  in  a  great  degree 
sunk  and  forgotten  in  a  very  few  ages.  To 
prevent  this  appears  to  have  been  one  reason 
why  a  visible  church  was  instituted  ;  to  be, 
like  a  city  upon  a  hill,  a  standing  memorial  to 
the  world  of  the  duty  which  we  owe  our 
Maker ;  to  call  men  continually,  both  by 
example  and  instruction,  to  attend  to  it,  and, 
by  the  form  of  religion  ever  before  their  eyes, 
remind  them  of  the  reality  ;  to  be  the  reposi- 


Butler's  Best  Passages  177 

tory  of  the  oracles  of  God  ;  to  hold  up  the 
light  of  revelation  in  aid  to  that  of  Nature,  and 
propagate  it  throughout  all  generations  to  the 
end  of  the  world — the  light  of  revelation  con- 
sidered here  in  no  other  view  than  as  designed 
to  enforce  natural  religion.  And  in  proportion 
as  Christianity  is  professed  and  taught  in  the 
world,  religion,  natural  or  essential  religion,  is 
thus  distinctly  and  advantageously  laid  before 
mankind,  and  brought  again  and  again  to  their 
thoughts  as  a  matter  of  infinite  importance. 
A  visible  church  has  also  a  further  tendency  to 
promote  natural  religion,  as  being  an  instituted 
method  of  education,  originally  intended  to  be 
of  more  peculiar  advantage  to  those  who  would 
conform  to  it.  For  one  end  of  the  institution 
was,  that  by  admonition  and  reproof,  as  well  as 
instruction,  by  a  general  regular  discipline  and 
public  exercises  of  religion,  the  body  of  Christy 
as  the  Scripture  speaks,  should  be  edified^  i.e. 
trained  up  in  piety  and  virtue  for  a  higher  and 
better  state. — Angus,  p.  155. 


M 


178      Butler's  Best  Passages 

And  it  is  to  be  observed  further,  that  as  the 
nature  of  the  case  requires,  so  all  Christians  are 
commanded  to  contribute  by  their  profession 
of  Christianity  to  preserve  it  in  the  world,  and 
render  it  such  a  promulgation  and  enforcement 
of  religion.  For  it  is  the  very  scheme  of  the 
gospel,  that  each  Christian  should  in  his  degree 
contribute  towards  continuing  and  carrying  it 
on  ;  all  by  uniting  in  the  public  profession 
and  external  practice  of  Christianity  ;  some  by 
instructing,  by  having  the  oversight  and  taking 
care  of  this  religious  community,  the  Church 
of  God. — Angus,  p.  158. 

Christianity  was  left  with  Christians,  to  be 
transmitted  down  pure  and  genuine,  or  to  be 
corrupted  and  sunk,  in  like  manner  as  the 
religion  of  nature  had  been  before  left  with 
mankind  in  general.  There  was,  however, 
this  difference,  that  by  an  institution  of  ex- 
ternal religion  fitted  for  all  men  (consisting  in 
a  common  form  of  Christian  worship,  together 
with  a  standing  ministry  of  instruction  and 


Butler's  Best  Passages  179 

discipline),  it  pleased  God  to  unite  Christians 
in  communities  or  visible  churches,  and  all 
along  to  preserve  them,  over  a  great  part  of 
the  world  ;  and  thus  perpetuate  a  general 
publication  of  the  Gospel.  For  these  com- 
munities, which  together  make  up  the  catholic 
visible  church,  are,  first,  the  repositories  of 
the  written  oracles  of  God  ;  and,  in  every  age, 
have  preserved  and  published  them  in  every 
country,  where  the  profession  of  Christianity 
has  obtained.  Hence  it  has  come  to  pass,  and 
it  is  a  thing  very  much  to  be  observed  in  the 
appointment  of  Providence,  that  even  such  of 
these  communities  as,  in  a  long  succession  of 
years,  have  corrupted  Christianity  the  most, 
have  yet  continually  carried,  together  with  their 
corruptions,  the  confutations  of  them  ;  for 
they  have  everywhere  preserved  the  pure 
original  standard  of  it,  the  Scripture,  to  which 
recourse  might  have  been  had,  both  by  the 
deceivers  and  the  deceived,  in  every  successive 
age.  Secondly,  any  particular  church,  in  what- 
ever place  established,  is  like  a  city  that  is  set  on 


i8o      Butler's  Best  Passages 

an  hill,  uohich  cannot  be  hid,  inviting  all  who  pass 
by  to  enter  into  it.  All  persons  to  whom  any 
notices  of  it  come  have,  in  Scripture  language, 
the  Kingdom  of  God  come  nigh  unto  them.  They 
are  reminded  of  that  religion,  which  natural 
conscience  attests  the  truth  of ;  and  they  may, 
if  they  will,  be  instructed  in  it  more  distinctly, 
and  likewise  in  the  gracious  means,  whereby 
sinful  creatures  may  obtain  eternal  life  ;  that 
chief  and  final  good,  which  all  men,  in  pro- 
portion to  their  understanding  and  integrity, 
even  in  all  ages  and  countries  of  the  heathen 
world,  were  ever  in  pursuit  of.  And,  lastly, 
out  of  these  churches  have  all  along  gone  forth 
persons,  who  have  preached  the  Gospel  in 
remote  places,  with  greater  or  less  good  effect ; 
for  the  establishment  of  any  profession  of 
Christianity,  however  corrupt,  I  call  a  good 
effect,  whilst  accompanied  with  a  continued 
publication  of  the  Scripture,  notwithstanding 
it  may  for  some  time  lie  quite  neglected. — 
Gladstone,  ii.  p.  279. 


Butler's  Best  Passages  i8i 


ON   PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

From  these  things,  it  may  be  worth  observing 
by  the  way,  appears  the  weakness  of  all  pleas 
for  neglecting  the  public  service  of  the  church. 
For  though  a  man  prays  with  as  much  devotion 
and  less  interruption  at  home,  and  reads  better 
sermons  there,  yet  that  will  by  no  means 
excuse  the  neglect  of  his  appointed  part  in 
keeping  up  the  profession  of  Christianity 
amongst  mankind.  And  this  neglect,  were  it 
universal,  must  be  the  dissolution  of  the  whole 
visible  church,  i.e.  of  all  Christian  communities; 
and  so  must  prevent  those  good  purposes, 
which  were  intended  to  be  answered  by  them, 
and  which  they  have,  all  along,  answered  over 
the  world.  For  we  see  that  by  their  means 
the  event  foretold  in  the  text  which  began  in 
the  preaching  of  Christ  and  the  apostles,  has 
been  carried  on,  more  or  less,  ever  since,  and 
is  still  carrying  on  ;  those  being  the  providential 
means  of  its  progress.  And  it  is,  I  suppose, 
the  completion  of  this  event,  which  St.  John 


i82      Butler's  Best  Passages 

had  a  representation  of,  under  the  figure  of 

an  angel  flying  in  the  midst  of  heaven,  having  the 
everlasting  gospel  to  preach  unto  them  that  dwelt 
on  the  earth,  and  to  every  nation,  and  kindred, 
and  tongue,  and  people. — Gladstone,  ii.  p.  281. 

But  if  these  appendages  of  the  divine  service 
are  to  be  regarded,  doubtless  the  divine  service 
itself  is  more  to  be  regarded  ;  and  the  con- 
scientious attendance  upon  it  ought  often  to 
be  inculcated  upon  the  people,  as  a  plain 
precept  of  the  Gospel,  as  the  means  of  grace, 
and  what  has  peculiar  promises  annexed  to  it. 
But  external  acts  of  piety  and  devotion,  and 
the  frequent  returns  of  them,  are,  moreover, 
necessary  to  keep  up  a  sense  of  religion,  which 
the  affairs  of  the  world  will  otherwise  wear  out 
of  men's  hearts.  And  the  frequent  returns, 
whether  of  public  devotions,  or  of  any  thing 
else,  to  introduce  religion  into  men's  serious 
thoughts,  will  have  an  influence  upon  them,  in 
proportion  as  they  are  susceptible  of  religion, 
and  not  given  over  to  a  reprobate  mind.  For 


Butler's  Best  Passages  183 

this  reason,  besides  others,  the  service  of  the 
church  ought  to  be  celebrated  as  often  as  you 
can  have  a  congregation  to  attend  it. — Glad- 
stone^ ii.  p.  409. 


ON    PASTORAL  CARE 

The  greater  festivals  of  the  church  being 
instituted  for  commemorating  the  several  parts 
of  the  Gospel  history,  of  course  lead  you  to 
explain  these  its  several  doctrines,  and  show 
the  Christian  practice  which  arises  out  of 
them.  And  the  more  occasional  solemnities 
of  religion,  as  well  as  these  festivals,  will  often 
afford  you  the  fairest  opportunities  of  enforcing 
all  those  things  in  familiar  conversation.  In- 
deed all  affectation  of  talking  piously  is  quite 
nauseous :  and  though  there  be  nothing  of 
this,  yet  men  will  easily  be  disgusted  at  the  too 
great  frequency  or  length  of  these  occasional 
admonitions.  But  a  word  of  God  and  religion 
dropped  sometimes  in  conversation,  gently,  and 
without  any  thing  severe  or  forbidding  in  the 


184      Butler's  Best  Passages 

manner  of  it,  this  is  not  unacceptable.  It  leaves 
an  impression,  is  repeated  again  by  the  hearers, 
and  often  remembered  by  plain  well-disposed 
persons  longer  than  one  would  think.  Parti- 
cular circumstances  too,  which  render  men 
more  apt  to  receive  instruction,  should  be  laid 
hold  of  to  talk  seriously  to  their  consciences. 
For  instance,  after  a  man's  recovery  from  a 
dangerous  sickness,  how  proper  it  is  to  advise 
him  to  recollect,  and  ever  bear  in  mind,  what 
were  his  hopes  and  fears,  his  wishes  and  resolu- 
tions, when  under  the  apprehension  of  death, 
in  order  to  bring  him  to  repentance,  or  con- 
firm him  in  a  course  of  piety,  according  as  his 
life  and  character  has  been.  So  likewise  the 
terrible  accidents  which  often  happen  from  riot 
and  debauchery,  and  indeed  almost  every  vice, 
are  occasions  providentially  thrown  in  your 
way,  to  discourse  against  these  vices  in  common 
conversation,  as  well  as  from  the  pulpit,  upon 
any  such  accidents  happening  in  your  parish, 
or  in  a  neighbouring  one.  Occasions  and 
circumstances  of  a  like  kind  to  some  or  other 


Butler's  Best  Passages  185 

of  these  occur  often,  and  ought,  if  I  may  so 
speak,  to  be  catched  at  as  opportunities  of 
conveying  instruction,  both  public  and  private, 
with  great  force  and  advantage. 

Public  instruction  is  absolutely  necessary, 
and  can  in  no  sort  be  dispensed  with.  But  as 
it  is  common  to  all  who  are  present,  many 
persons  strangely  neglect  to  appropriate  what 
they  hear  to  themselves,  to  their  own  heart  and 
life.  Now  the  only  remedy  for  this  in  our 
power  is  a  particular  personal  application,  and 
a  personal  application  makes  a  very  different 
impression  from  a  common,  general  one.  It 
were  therefore  greatly  to  be  wished,  that  every 
man  should  have  the  principles  of  Christianity, 
and  his  own  particular  duty  enforced  upon  his 
conscience,  in  a  manner  suited  to  his  capacity, 
in  private. — Gladstone,  ii.  p.  413. 

ON    PULPIT  CONTROVERSY 

But  your  standing  business,  and  which 
requires  constant  attention,  is  with  the  body 


i86      Butler's  Best  Passages 

of  the  people  ;  to  revive  in  them  the  spirit 
of  religion,  which  is  so  much  declining.  And 
it  may  seem,  that  whatever  reason  there  be 
for  caution  as  to  entering  into  an  argu- 
mentative defence  of  religion  in  common  con- 
versation, yet  that  it  is  necessary  to  do  this 
from  the  pulpit,  in  order  to  guard  the  people 
against  being  corrupted,  however,  in  some 
places.  But  then  surely  it  should  be  done 
in  a  manner  as  little  controversial  as  possible. 
For  though  such  as  are  capable  of  seeing 
the  force  of  objections  are  capable  also  of 
seeing  the  force  of  the  answers  which  are 
given  to  them  ;  yet  the  truth  is,  the  people 
will  not  competently  attend  to  either.  But 
it  is  easy  to  see  which  they  will  attend  to 
most.  And  to  hear  religion  treated  of  as 
what  many  deny,  and  which  has  much  said 
against  it  as  well  as  for  it ;  this  cannot  but 
have  a  tendency  to  give  them  ill  impressions 
at  any  time,  and  seems  particularly  improper 
for  all  persons  at  a  time  of  devotion,  even 
for  such  as  are  arrived  at  the  most  settled 


Butler's  Best  Passages  187 

state  of  piety  :  I  say  at  a  time  of  devotion, 
when  we  are  assembled  to  yield  ourselves  up 
to  the  full  influence  of  the  Divine  presence, 
and  to  call  forth  into  actual  exercise  every 
pious  affection  of  heart.  For  it  is  to  be 
repeated,  that  the  heart  and  course  of  affec- 
tions may  be  disturbed  when  there  is  no 
alteration  of  judgment.  Now  the  evidence 
of  religion  may  be  laid  before  men  without 
any  air  of  controversy.  The  proof  of  the 
being  of  God  from  final  causes,  or  the  design 
and  wisdom  which  appears  in  every  part  of 
nature ;  together  with  the  law  of  virtue 
written  upon  our  hearts  :  the  proof  of  Chris- 
tianity from  miracles,  and  the  accomplish- 
ment of  prophecies  ;  and  the  confirmation 
which  the  natural  and  civil  history  of  the 
world  give  to  the  Scripture  account  of  things, 
these  evidences  of  religion  might  properly  be 
insisted  on,  in  a  way  to  affect  and  influence 
the  heart,  though  there  were  no  professed 
unbelievers  in  the  world  ;  and  therefore  may 
be  insisted  on,  without  taking  much  notice 


i88       Butler's  Best  Passages 

that  there  are  such.  And  even  their  particular 
objections  may  be  obviated  without  a  formal 
mention  of  them.  Besides,  as  to  religion  in 
general,  it  is  a  practical  thing,  and  no  other- 
wise a  matter  of  speculation,  than  common 
prudence  in  the  management  of  our  worldly 
affairs  is  so.  And  if  one  were  endeavouring 
to  bring  a  plain  man  to  be  more  careful  with 
regard  to  this  last,  it  would  be  thought  a 
strange  method  of  doing  it,  to  perplex  him 
with  stating  formally  the  several  objections 
which  men  of  gaiety  or  speculation  have  made 
against  prudence,  and  the  advantages  which 
they  pleasantly  tell  us  folly  has  over  it ;  though 
one  could  answer  those  objections  ever  so 
fully. — Gladstone,  ii.  p.  403. 

ON   THE   STUDY   OF  DIVINITY 

.  .  .  Divinity,  that  being  what  I  should 
chuse  for  the  business  of  my  life,  it  being,  I 
think,  of  all  other  studies  the  most  suitable 
to  a  reasonable  nature. — Steere,  p.  12. 


Butler's  Best  Passages  189 


ON  MISSIONS 

God,  if  He  had  so  pleased,  could  indeed 
miraculously  have  revealed  every  religious 
truth  which  concerns  mankind,  to  every  in- 
dividual man  :  and  so  He  could  have  every 
common  truth,  and  thus  have  superseded  all 
use  of  human  teaching  in  either.  Yet  He  has 
not  done  this  :  but  has  appointed  that  men 
should  be  instructed  by  the  assistance  of  their 
fellow-creatures  in  both.  Further  :  though 
all  knowledge  from  reason  is  as  really  from 
God,  as  revelation  is  ;  yet  this  last  is  a  dis- 
tinguished favour  to  us,  and  naturally  strikes 
us  with  the  greatest  awe,  and  carries  in  it  an 
assurance,  that  those  things  which  we  are  in- 
formed of  by  it  are  of  the  utmost  importance 
to  us  to  be  informed  of. 

Revelation,  therefore,  as  it  demands  to  be 
received  with  a  regard  and  reverence  peculiar 
to  itself ;  so  it  lays  us  under  obligations,  of 
a  like  peculiar  sort,  to  communicate  the  light 
of  it.    Further  still :  it  being  an  indispensable 


190      Butler's  Best  Passages 

law  of  the  gospel,  that  Christians  should  unite 
in  religious  communities,  and  these  being  in- 
tended for  repositories  of  written  oracles  of  God, 
for  standing  memorials  of  religion  to  unthink- 
ing men,  and  for  the  propagation  of  it  in  the 
world  ;  Christianity  is  very  particularly  to  be 
considered  as  a  trust,  deposited  with  us  in 
behalf  of  others,  in  behalf  of  mankind,  as  well 
as  for  our  own  instruction.  No  one  has  a 
right  to  be  called  a  Christian,  who  doth  not 
do  somewhat  in  his  station,  towards  the  dis- 
charge of  this  trust  ;  who  doth  not,  for  in- 
stance, assist  in  keeping  up  the  profession  of 
Christianity  where  he  lives. — Gladstone,  ii. 
p.  285. 

ON  READING 

The  great  number  of  books  and  papers  of 
amusement,  which,  of  one  kind  or  another, 
daily  come  in  one's  way,  have  in  part  occa- 
sioned, and  most  perfectly  fall  in  with,  and 
humour  this  idle  way  of  reading  and  con- 
sidering things.     By  this  means,  time  even 


Butler's  Best  Passages  191 

in  solitude  is  happily  got  rid  of,  without  the 
pain  of  attention  :  neither  is  any  part  of  it 
more  put  to  the  account  of  idleness,  one  can 
scarce  forbear  saying,  is  spent  with  less 
thought,  than  great  part  of  that  which  is 
spent  in  reading. 

Thus  people  habituate  themselves  to  let 
things  pass  through  their  minds,  as  one  may 
speak,  rather  than  to  think  of  them.  Thus 
by  use  they  become  satisfied  merely  with  see- 
ing what  is  said  without  going  any  further. 
Review  and  attention,  or  even  forming  a 
judgment,  becomes  fatigue  ;  and  to  lay  any- 
thing before  them  that  requires  it,  is  putting 
them  quite  out  of  their  way. — Angus,  p.  337. 

Brutus  never  read  but  in  order  to  make 
himself  a  better  man. — Angus,  p.  458. 

ON  STYLE 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  some  of  the 
following  Discourses  are  very  abstruse  and 


192       Butler's  Best  Passages 

difficult,  or,  if  you  please,  obscure  ;  but  I 
must  take  leave  to  add,  that  those  alone  are 
judges,  whether  or  no  and  how  far  this  is  a 
fault,  who  are  judges  whether  or  no  and  how 
far  it  might  have  been  avoided — those  only 
who  will  be  at  the  trouble  to  understand 
what  is  here  said,  and  to  see  how  far  the 
things  here  insisted  upon,  and  not  other 
things,  might  have  been  put  in  a  plainer 
manner,  which  yet  I  am  very  far  from  assert- 
ing that  they  could  not.  Thus  much  how- 
ever will  be  allowed,  that  general  criticisms 
concerning  obscurity  considered  as  a  distinct 
thing  from  confusion  and  perplexity  of  thought, 
as  in  some  cases  there  may  be  ground  for 
them  ;  so  in  others,  they  may  be  nothing 
more  at  the  bottom  than  complaints,  that 
everything  is  not  to  be  understood  with  the 
same  ease  that  some  things  are.  Confusion 
and  perplexity  in  writing,  is  indeed  without 
excuse,  because  any  one  may,  if  he  pleases, 
know  whether  he  understands  and  sees  through 
what  he  is  about  :  and  it  is  unpardonable  for 


Butler's  Best  Passages  193 

a  man  to  lay  his  thoughts  before  others,  when 
he  is  conscious  that  he  himself  does  not  know 
whereabouts  he  is,  or  how  the  matter  before 
him  stands.  It  is  coming  abroad  in  disorder 
which  he  ought  to  be  dissatisfied  to  find 
himself  in  at  home. — Angus,  p.  338. 


ON  TALKATIVENESS 

Now  the  fault  referred  to,  and  the  disposi- 
tion supposed,  in  precepts  and  reflections  con- 
cerning the  government  of  the  tongue,  is  not 
evil-speaking  from  malice,  nor  lying,  nor  bear- 
ing false  witness  from  indirect  selfish  designs. 
The  disposition  to  these,  and  the  actual  vices 
themselves,  all  come  under  other  subjects. 
The  tongue  may  be  employed  about  and  made 
to  serve  all  the  purposes  of  vice  in  tempting 
and  deceiving,  in  perjury  and  injustice.  But 
the  thing  here  supposed  and  referred  to  is 
talkativeness  ;  a  disposition  to  be  talking, 
abstracted  from  the  consideration  of  what  is 
to  be  said,  with  very  little  or  no  regard  to  or 

N 


194      Butler's  Best  Passages 

thought  of  doing  either  good  or  harm.  And 
let  not  any  imagine  this  to  be  a  slight  matter, 
and  that  it  deserves  not  to  have  so  great 
weight  laid  upon  it,  till  he  has  considered  what 
evil  is  implied  in  it,  and  the  bad  effects  which 
follows  from  it.  It  is  perhaps  true,  that  they 
who  are  addicted  to  this  folly  would  choose 
to  confine  themselves  to  trifles  and  indifferent 
subjects,  and  so  intend  only  to  be  guilty  of 
being  impertinent ;  but  as  they  cannot  go  on 
for  ever  talking  of  nothing,  as  common 
matters  will  not  afford  a  sufficient  fund  for 
perpetual  continued  discourse  ;  when  subjects 
of  this  kind  are  exhausted  they  will  go  on  to 
defamation,  scandal,  divulging  of  secrets,  their 
own  secrets  as  well  as  those  of  others,  anything 
rather  than  be  silent.  They  are  plainly  hurried 
on  in  the  heat  of  their  talk  to  say  quite 
different  things  from  what  they  first  intended, 
and  which  they  afterwards  wish  unsaid  ;  or 
improper  things,  which  they  had  no  other  end 
in  saying  but  only  to  afford  employment  to 
their  tongue  ;  and  if  these  people  expect  to 


Butler's  Best  Passages  195 

be  heard  and  regarded  (for  there  are  some 
content  merely  with  talking),  they  will  invent 
to  engage  your  attention  ;  and  when  they  have 
heard  the  least  imperfect  hint  of  an  affair,  they 
will  out  of  their  own  head  add  the  circum- 
stances of  time  and  place,  and  other  matters  to 
make  out  their  story,  and  give  the  appear- 
ance of  probability  to  it  ;  not  that  they  have 
any  concern  about  being  believed,  otherwise 
than  as  a  means  of  being  heard. 

The  thing  is  to  engage  your  attention,  to 
take  you  up  wholly  for  the  present  time ;  what 
reflections  will  be  made  afterwards  is  in  truth 
the  least  of  their  thoughts.  And  further,  when 
persons  who  indulge  themselves  in  these  liberties 
of  the  tongue  are  in  any  degree  offended  with 
another,  as  little  disgusts  and  misunderstand- 
ings will  be,  they  allow  themselves  to  defame 
and  revile  such  an  one  without  any  moderation 
or  bounds,  though  the  offence  is  so  very  slight 
that  they  themselves  would  not  do,  nor  perhaps 
wish  him  an  injury  in  any  other  way  ;  and  in 
this  case  the  scandal  and  revilings  are  chiefly 


196      Butler's  Best  Passages 

owing  to  talkativeness  and  not  bridling  their 
tongue,  and  so  come  under  our  present  subject. 
The  least  occasion  in  the  world  will  make  the 
humour  break  out  in  this  particular  way,  or  in 
another.  It  is  like  a  torrent  which  must  and 
will  flow,  but  the  least  thing  imaginable  will 
first  of  all  give  it  either  this  or  another  direc- 
tion, turn  it  into  this  or  that  channel  ;  or  like 
a  fire,  the  nature  of  which,  when  in  a  heap  of 
combustible  matter,  is  to  spread  and  lay  waste 
all  around,  but  any  one  of  a  thousand  little 
accidents  will  occasion  it  to  break  out  first 
either  in  this  or  another  particular  part. — 
Angus,  p.  393. 

There  is  some  such  a  disposition  to  be 
talking,  that  an  offence  of  the  slightest  kind, 
and  such  as  would  not  raise  any  other  resent- 
ment, yet  raises,  if  I  may  so  speak,  the  resent- 
ment of  the  tongue,  puts  it  into  a  flame, 
into  the  most  ungovernable  motions. — Angus, 
P-  395- 

Let  any  one  consider  the  various  interests. 


Butler's  Best  Passages  197 

competitions,  and  little  misunderstandings 
which  arise  amongst  men,  and  he  will  soon  see 
that  he  is  not  unprejudiced  and  impartial,  that 
he  is  not,  as  I  may  speak,  neutral  enough  to 
trust  himself  with  talking  of  the  character  and 
concerns  of  his  neighbour  in  a  free,  careless, 
and  unreserved  manner.  There  is  perpetually, 
and  often  it  is  not  attended  to,  a  rivalship 
amongst  people  of  one  kind  or  another,  in 
respect  to  wit,  beauty,  learning,  fortune  ;  and 
that  one  thing  will  insensibly  influence  them 
to  speak  to  the  disadvantage  of  others,  even 
where  there  is  no  formed  malice  or  ill  design. 
Since,  therefore,  it  is  so  hard  to  enter  into  this 
subject  without  offending  ;  the  first  thing  to 
be  observed  is,  that  people  should  learn  to 
decline  it;  to  get  over  that  inclination  most  have 
to  be  talking  of  the  concerns  and  behaviour  of 
their  neighbour. — Angus,  p.  400. 

Upon  the  whole  matter :  if  people  would 
observe  the  occasions  of  silence  ;  if  they  would 
subdue  the  inclination  to  tale-bearing,  and  that 


198      Butler's  Best  Passages 

eager  desire  to  engage  attention,  which  is  an 
original  disease  in  some  minds ;  they  would  be 
in  little  danger  of  offending  with  their  tongue  ; 
and  would,  in  a  moral  and  religious  sense,  have 
due  government  over  it. — Angus,  p.  402. 

ON  AMUSEMENTS 

Let  us,  then,  suppose  a  man  entirely  dis- 
engaged from  business  and  pleasure,  sitting 
down  alone  and  at  leisure,  to  reflect  upon 
himself  and  his  own  condition  of  being.  He 
would  immediately  feel  that  he  was  by  no 
means  complete  of  himself,  but  totally  in- 
sufficient for  his  own  happiness.  One  may 
venture  to  affirm  that  every  man  hath  felt 
this  whether  he  hath  again  reflected  upon  it 
or  not.  It  is  feeling  this  deficiency,  that  they 
are  unsatisfied  with  themselves,  which  makes 
men  look  out  for  assistance  from  abroad,  and 
which  has  given  rise  to  various  kinds  of 
amusements  altogether  needless  any  otherwise 
than  as  they  serve  to  fill  up  the  blank  spaces 


Butler's  Best  Passages  199 

of  time,  and  so  hinder  their  feeling  this 
deficiency,  and  being  uneasy  with  themselves. 
Now,  if  these  external  things  we  take  up  with 
were  really  an  adequate  supply  to  this  deficiency 
of  human  nature ;  if  by  their  means  our  capa- 
cities and  desires  were  all  satisfied  and  filled 
up  ;  then  it  might  be  truly  said  that  we  had 
found  out  the  proper  happiness  of  man,  and 
so  might  sit  down  satisfied,  and  be  at  rest  in 
the  enjoyment  of  it.  But  if  it  appears  that  the 
amusements  which  men  usually  pass  their  time 
in,  are  so  far  from  coming  up  to,  or  answering 
our  notions  and  desires  of  happiness  or  good, 
that  they  are  really  no  more  than  what  they 
are  commonly  called,  somewhat  to  pass  away 
the  time  ;  i.e.  somewhat  which  serves  to  turn 
us  aside  from,  and  prevent  our  attending  to  this 
our  internal  poverty  and  want ;  if  they  serve 
only,  or  chiefly  to  suspend,  instead  of  satisfying 
our  conceptions  and  desires  of  happiness  ;  if 
the  want  remains,  and  we  have  found  out  little 
more  than  barely  the  means  of  making  it  less 
sensible,  then  are  we  still  to  seek  for  somewhat 


200      Butler's  Best  Passages 

to  be  an  adequate  supply  to  it. — Angus,  p. 
512. 

ON  CHILDREN 

Human  creatures,  from  the  constitution  of 
their  nature  and  the  circumstances  in  which 
they  are  placed,  cannot  but  acquire  habits 
during  their  childhood,  by  the  impressions 
which  are  given  them,  and  their  own  customary 
actions.  And  long  before  they  arrive  at 
mature  age,  these  habits  form  a  general  settled 
character,  and  the  observation  ot  the  text,  that 
the  most  early  habits  are  usually  the  most 
lasting,  is  likewise  every  one's  observation. 
Now  whenever  children  are  left  to  themselves, 
and  to  the  guides  and  companions  which  they 
choose,  or  by  hazard  light  upon,  we.  find  by 
experience  that  the  first  impressions  they  take, 
and  course  of  action  they  get  into,  are  very 
bad  ;  and  so  consequently  must  be  their  habits 
and  character,  and  future  behaviour.  Thus,  if 
they  are  not  trained  up  in  the  way  they  should 
go,  they  will  certainly  be  trained  up  in  the  way 


Butler's  Best  Passages  201 

they  should  not  go  ;  and  in  all  probability  will 
persevere  in  it,  and  become  miserable  them- 
selves and  mischievous  to  society  :  which,  in 
event,  is  worse,  upon  account  of  both,  than 
if  they  had  been  exposed  to  perish  in  their 
infancy. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  ingenuous  docility 
of  children  before  they  have  been  deceived, 
their  distrust  of  themselves,  and  natural  defer- 
ence to  grown  people,  whom  they  find  here 
settled  in  a  world  where  they  themselves  are 
strangers  ;  and  to  whom  they  have  recourse 
for  advice  as  readily  as  for  protection,  which 
deference  is  still  greater  towards  those  who 
are  placed  over  them  ;  these  things  give  the 
justest  ground  to  expect  that  they  may  receive 
such  impressions  and  be  influenced  to  such  a 
course  of  behaviour,  as  will  produce  lasting 
good  habits  ;  and,  together  with  the  dangers 
before  mentioned,  are  as  truly  a  natural 
demand  on  us  to  train  them  up  in  the  way  they 
should  go,  as  their  bodily  wants  are  a  demand 
to  provide  them  bodily  nourishment. 


202      Butler's  Best  Passages 

Brute  creatures  are  appointed  to  do  no  more 
than  this  last  for  their  offspring,  nature  form- 
ing them  by  instincts  to  the  particular  manner 
of  life  appointed  them,  from  which  they  never 
deviate.  But  this  is  so  far  from  being  the 
case  of  men,  that,  on  the  contrary,  considering 
communities  collectively,  every  successive 
generation  is  left,  in  the  ordinary  course  of 
Providence,  to  be  formed  by  the  preceding 
one  ;  and  becomes  good  or  bad,  though  not 
without  its  own  merit  or  demerit,  as  this 
trust  is  discharged  or  violated,  chiefly  in  the 
management  of  youth. — Gladstone,  ii.  p.  339. 

ON  DEATH 

The  unknown  event,  death. — Angus,  p.  18. 

We  know  not  at  all  what  death  is  in  itself ; 
but  only  some  of  its  effects,  such  as  the  dis- 
solution of  flesh,  skin,  and  bones. — Angus,  p.  1 9. 

Nay,  for  aught  we  know  of  ourselves,  of 
our  present  life  and  of  death ;  death  may 


Butler's  Best  Passages  203 

immediately,  in  the  natural  course  of  things, 
put  us  into  a  higher  and  more  enlarged  state 
of  life  as  our  birth  does  ;  a  state  in  which  our 
capacities,  and  sphere  of  perception  and  of 
action,  may  be  much  greater  than  at  present. 
For  as  our  relation  to  our  external  organs  of 
sense  renders  us  capable  of  existing  in  our 
present  state  of  sensation,  so  it  may  be  the 
only  natural  hindrance  to  our  existing,  im- 
mediately and  of  course,  in  a  higher  state  of 
reflection.  The  truth  is,  reason  does  not  at  all 
show  us  in  what  state  death  naturally  leaves 
us.  But  were  we  sure  it  would  suspend  all 
our  perceptive  and  active  powers,  yet  the  sus- 
pension of  a  power  and  the  destruction  of  it 
are  effects  so  totally  different  in  kind,  as  we 
experience  from  sleep  and  a  swoon,  that  we 
cannot  in  any  wise  argue  from  one  to  the 
other  ;  or  conclude  even  to  the  lowest  degree 
of  probability  that  the  same  kind  of  force 
which  is  sufficient  to  suspend  our  faculties, 
though  it  be  increased  ever  so  much,  will  be 
sufficient  to  destroy  them. — Angus,  p.  31. 


204      Butler's  Best  Passages 


ON    THE    FUTURE  LIFE 

That  which  makes  the  question  concerning 
a  future  life  to  be  of  so  great  importance  to 
us,  is  our  capacity  of  happiness  and  misery. 
And  that  which  makes  the  consideration  of  it 
to  be  of  so  great  importance  to  us,  is  the  suppo- 
sition of  our  happiness  and  misery  hereafter, 
depending  upon  our  actions  here.  Without 
this,  indeed,  curiosity  could  not  but  sometimes 
bring  a  subject,  in  which  we  may  be  so  highly 
interested,  to  our  thoughts  ;  especially  upon 
the  mortality  of  others,  or  the  near  prospect  of 
our  own.  But  reasonable  men  would  not  take 
any  further  thought  about  hereafter,  than  what 
should  happen  thus  occasionally  to  rise  in  their 
minds,  if  it  were  certain  that  our  future  interest 
no  way  depended  upon  our  present  behaviour; 
whereas  on  the  contrary,  if  there  be  ground 
either  from  analogy  or  anything  else,  to  think 
it  does  ;  then  there  is  reason  also  for  the  most 
active  thought  and  solicitude  to  secure  that 
interest ;  to  behave  so  as  that  we  may  escape 


Butler's  Best  Passages  205 

that  misery  and  obtain  that  happiness  in 
another  life,  which  we  not  only  suppose  our- 
selves capable  of,  but  which  we  apprehend  is 
put  in  our  own  power. — Angus,  p.  37. 

Our  posthumous  life,  whatever  there  may 
be  in  it  additional  to  our  present,  yet  may  not 
be  entirely  beginning  anew,  but  going  on. 
Death  may,  in  some  sort  and  in  some  respects, 
answer  to  our  birth ;  which  is  not  a  suspension 
of  the  faculties  which  we  had  before  it,  or  a 
total  change  of  the  state  of  life  in  which  we 
existed  when  in  the  womb,  but  a  continuation 
of  both,  with  such  and  such  great  alterations. 

Nay,  for  aught  we  know  of  ourselves,  of 
our  present  life  and  of  death ;  death  may 
immediately,  in  the  natural  course  of  things, 
put  us  into  a  higher  and  more  enlarged  state 
of  life  as  our  birth  does  ;  a  state  in  which  our 
capacities,  and  sphere  of  perception  and  of 
action,  may  be  much  greater  than  at  present. 
—Angus,  p.  31. 


2o6      Butler's  Best  Passages 

We  are  led  to  consider  this  little  scene  of 
human  life  in  which  we  are  so  busily  engaged, 
as  having  a  reference  of  some  sort  or  other  to 
a  much  larger  plan  of  things.  Whether  we 
are  any  way  related  to  the  more  distant  parts 
of  the  boundless  universe,  into  which  we  are 
brought,  is  altogether  uncertain.  But  it  is 
evident  that  the  course  of  things,  which  comes 
within  our  view,  is  connected  with  somewhat 
past,  present,  and  future,  beyond  it.  So  that 
we  are  placed,  as  one  may  speak,  in  the  middle 
of  a  scheme,  not  a  fixed  but  a  progressive  one, 
every  way  incomprehensible  ;  incomprehensible 
in  a  manner  equally  with  respect  to  what  has 
been,  what  now  is,  and  what  shall  be  hereafter. 
— Angus,  p.  141. 

Irrational  creatures  act  this  their  part,  and 
enjoy  and  undergo  the  pleasures  and  the  pains 
allotted  them  without  any  reflection.  But 
one  would  think  it  impossible  that  creatures 
endued  with  reason  could  avoid  reflecting 
sometimes  upon  all   this  ;  reflecting,  if  not 


Butler's  Best  Passages  207 

from  whence  we  came,  yet  at  least  whither  we 
are  going,  and  what  the  mysterious  scheme,  in 
the  midst  of  which  we  find  ourselves,  will  at 
length  come  out  and  produce  ;  a  scheme  in 
which  it  is  certain  we  are  highly  interested  and 
in  which  we  may  be  interested  even  beyond 
conception. — Angus,  p.  142. 

Nothing  which  we  at  present  see  would 
lead  us  to  the  thought  of  a  solitary  inactive 
state  hereafter  :  but,  if  we  judge  at  all  from 
the  analogy  of  Nature,  we  must  suppose, 
according  to  the  Scripture  account  of  it,  that 
it  will  be  a  community.  And  there  is  no 
shadow  of  anything  unreasonable  in  con- 
ceiving, though  there  be  no  analogy  for  it, 
that  this  community  will  be,  as  the  Scripture 
represents  it,  under  the  more  immediate,  or, 
if  such  an  expression  may  be  used,  the  more 
sensible  government  of  God.  Nor  is  our 
ignorance  what  will  be  the  employments  of 
this  happy  community,  nor  our  consequent 
ignorance,  what  particular  scope  or  occasion 


2o8      Butler's  Best  Passages 

there  will  be  for  the  exercise  of  veracity, 
justice,  and  charity,  amongst  the  members  of 
it,  with  regard  to  each  other,  any  proof,  that 
there  will  be  no  sphere  of  exercise  for  those 
virtues.  Much  less,  if  that  were  possible,  is 
our  ignorance  any  proof,  that  there  will  be 
no  occasion  for  that  frame  of  mind,  or  char- 
acter, which  is  formed  by  the  daily  practice 
of  those  particular  virtues  here,  and  which  is 
a  result  from  it.  This  at  least  must  be  owned 
in  general,  that,  as  the  government  established 
in  the  universe  is  moral,  the  character  of  virtue 
and  piety  must,  in  some  way  or  other,  be  the 
condition  of  our  happiness,  or  the  qualification 
for  it. — Angus,  p.  97. 


LETTERS 


Bristol  was  the  poorest  of  the  English 
Bishoprics,  the  value  not  exceeding  £400 
per  annum  ;  and  the  promotion  of  Gooch 
(whose  claims  fell  far  short  of  Butler's)  to 
Norwich  was  probably  a  low  manoeuvre  of 
Walpole's,  who  may  have  thought  that  the 
ascetic  Rector  of  Stanhope  was  too  unworldly 
a  person  to  care  for  the  poverty  of  his  prefer- 
ment, or  perceive  the  slight  which  it  implied. 
But,  if  such  were  his  calculations,  the  coarse- 
minded  minister  mistook  his  man  ;  and  the 
letter,  in  which  he  acknowledged  Sir  Robert's 
announcement  of  his  promotion,  shows  plainly 
that  Butler  understood  his  position,  and  was 
no  way  disposed  to  compromise  it  : — 

Stanhope,  August  28,  1738. 

Sir, — I  received  yesterday,  from  your  own 
o 


2IO 


Butler's  Letters 


hand  (an  honour  which  I  ought  very  particu- 
larly to  acknowledge),  the  information  that  the 
King  had  nominated  me  to  the  Bishoprick  of 
Bristol.  I  most  truly  think  myself  very  highly 
obliged  to  His  Majesty,  as  much,  all  things 
considered,  as  any  subject  in  his  dominions  ; 
for  I  know  no  greater  obligation,  than  to  find 
the  Queen's  condescending  goodness  and  kind 
intentions  towards  me,  transferred  to  His 
Majesty.  Nor  is  it  possible,  while  I  live,  to 
be  without  the  most  grateful  sense  of  his 
favour  to  me,  whether  the  effects  of  it  be 
greater  or  less ;  for,  this  must  in  some 
measure  depend  upon  accidents.  Indeed,  the 
Bishoprick  of  Bristol  is  not  very  suitable 
either  to  the  condition  of  my  fortune,  or  the 
circumstances  of  my  preferment  ;  nor,  as  I 
should  have  thought,  answerable  to  the  re- 
commendation with  which  I  was  honoured. 
But  you  will  excuse  me.  Sir,  if  I  think  of 
this  last  with  greater  sensibility  than  the 
conduct  of  affairs  will  admit  of. 

But  without  entering  further  into  detail,  I 


Butler's  Letters 


2  I  I 


desire,  Sir,  you  will  please  to  let  His  Majesty 
know,  that  I  humbly  accept  this  instance  of 
his  favour  with  the  utmost  possible  gratitude. 

I  beg  leave,  also,  Sir,  to  return  you  my 
humble  thanks  for  your  good  offices  upon 
this,  and  all  occasions  ;  and  for  your  very 
obliging  expressions  of  regard  to, — Sir,  your 
most  obedient,  most  faithful,  and  most  humble 
Servant,  Joseph  Butler. 

— Fitzgerald,  p.  liii. 

Two  letters  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  : — 

The  Bishop  of  Bristol  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle 
Bristol,  5  Aug.  1750. 

My  Lord, — I  have  this  afternoon  the 
Honour  of  your  Grace's  letter  informing  me 
of  my  Nomination  to  the  Bishoprick  of 
Durham,  which  I  am  sensible  is  the  greatest 
Instance  of  Favour  I  could  receive  from  the 
King.  As  I  read  in  your  letter,  my  Lord, 
my  answer  to  it  in  my  own  Thoughts  was, 
to  return  your  Grace  my  humble  Thanks  for 
all  your  Favours,  particularly  for  your  kind 


212 


Butler's  Letters 


concurrence  and  assistances  upon  this  occasion 
and  the  obliging  satisfaction  you  take  in  the 
success  of  them.  But  when  I  came  to  the 
postscript  and  found  a  Command  accompany- 
ing that  nomination  it  gave  me  greater  Dis- 
turbance of  mind  than  I  think  I  ever  felt. 
Your  Grace  will  please  to  remember  that  when 
you  mentioned  this  to  me  near  three-quarters 
of  a  year  agoe,  I  made  not  a  word  of  answer, 
but  went  on  talking  of  other  things,  and  upon 
your  repeating  the  mention  of  it  at  the  same 
time,  just  as  I  was  going  out  of  your  Dressing 
Room,  I  told  your  Grace  it  did  not  admit 
of  an  answer.  This  my  Silence,  and  this  my 
Reply  were  owing  to  my  being  in  so  great 
a  surprize  as  such  a  thing  being  asked  of 
me  beforehand  that  I  durst  not  trust  myself 
to  talk  upon  the  subject.  But  upon  settling 
within  myself  what  I  ought  to  say,  I  proposed 
to  wait  upon  your  Grace,  and  let  you  know 
that  I  could  not  take  any  Church  Promotion 
upon  the  condition  of  any  such  Promise  or 
Intimation  as  your  Grace  seemed  to  expect. 


Butler's  Letters  213 

But  before  I  had  time  for  this  I  met  the 
Archbishop  who  began  as  from  you  to  talk 
to  me  of  the  affair,  upon  which  I  desired 
him  to  let  your  Grace  know  what  I  had 
purposed,  as  I  now  said,  to  tell  you  myself. 
My  words,  so  far  as  I  can  remember  were, 
that  my  Principles  would  not  permit  me  to 
accept  of  any  Promotion  upon  the  condition 
of  making  any  Promise  or  raising  any  Ex- 
pectation beforehand  of  giving  away  prefer- 
ment. After  all  this,  my  Lord,  I  had  not 
the  most  distant  suspicion  but  that  if  His 
Majesty  would  nominate  me  to  Durham, 
your  Grace  would  have  permitted  the  Nomi- 
nation to  come  free. 

My  Lord,  the  Bishops  as  well  as  the  in- 
ferior Clergy  take  the  Oaths  against  Simony, 
and  as  I  should  think  an  express  Promise 
of  Preferment  to  a  Patron  beforehand  an 
express  Breach  of  that  Oath,  and  would  deny 
Institution  upon  it,  so  I  should  think  a  tacit 
Promise  a  tacit  Breach  of  it.  I  am  afraid 
your  Grace  may  think  I  have  already  said 


214  Butler's  Letters 

too  much,  but  as  this  affair  that  I  am  to 
give  Dr.  Chapman  the  first  Prebend  of 
Durham,  is  common  Talk  at  Cambridge,  and 
consequently  will  be  so,  if  it  be  not  already, 
wherever  I  am  known,  I  think  myself  bound, 
whatever  be  the  Consequence  of  my  Simplicity 
and  Openness,  to  add  that  it  will  be  im- 
possible for  me  to  do  it  consistently  with 
my  Character  and  Honour,  since  if  I  should, 
it  would  be  understood  (tho'  your  Grace  and 
I  know  the  contrary)  to  be  done  in  con- 
sequence of  some  previous  Promise,  either 
express  or  tacit.  I  am,  my  Lord,  in  great 
Discomposure  of  mind  upon  this  affair,  and 
very  unfit  to  write  to  your  Grace.  Yet  I 
think  it  absolutely  necessary  to  return  your 
Grace  an  immediate  answer  by  the  King's 
Messenger,  and  I  must  also  write  to  His 
Majesty. 

So  I  hope  your  Grace  will  put  a  candid 
construction  upon  any  improper  expressions 
which  may  have  'scaped  me.  For  I  can 
have  no  Desire  (and  my  present  situation  is 


Butler's  Letters  215 

surely  a  Proof  of  it)  to  say  anything  or 
express  myself  in  any  manner  disagreeable 
to  your  Grace,  further  than  what  my  Prin- 
ciples may  have  obliged  me  to. 

I  am,  with  the  greatest  Respect,  your  Grace's 
most  obedient,  devoted  humble  Servant, 

Jo.,  Bristol. 

Your  Grace  recollects  that  if  a  Prebend  of 
D.  held  by  Com"'  becomes  vacant  by  my 
Promotion  it  of  course  devolves  to  the 
Crown. 

The  Bishop  of  Durham  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle 
Hampsted,  Dec.  ist,  1751 

My  Lord, — I  shall  pay  all  the  Regard  to 
your  Grace's  Recommendation  that  I  am  per- 
suaded you  yourself  will  think  reasonable. 
But  as  I  am  altogether  unacquainted  with 
the  character  of  the  Person  recommended  I 
must  desire  a  little  time  to  inquire  into  it  ; 
especially  as  I  am  inclined  to  think  he  is  a 
stranger  to  your  Grace. 


2l6 


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I  must  likewise  beg  leave  to  add  that 
Eglinham  being  a  vicarage  I  cannot  give 
leave  of  absence  to  any  one  who  I  myself 
shall  present  to  it. 

I  am,  with  the  greatest  Respect,  my  Lord, 
your  Grace's  most  obliged,  most  obedient  and 
most  humble  Servant,  Jo.  Duresme. 

• — Gladstone,  ii.  p.  431. 

Good  Sir, — When,  or  where,  this  will 
find  you,  I  know  not ;  but  I  would  not 
defer  thanking  you  for  the  obliging  satis- 
faction you  express,  in  my  translation  to  the 
See  of  Durham.  I  wish  my  behaviour  in  it 
may  be  such  as  to  justify  His  Majesty's  choice, 
and  the  approbation  of  it,  which  you  (much 
too  kindly,  I  suppose)  think  to  be  general. 
If  one  is  enabled  to  do  a  little  good,  and  to 
prefer  worthy  men,  this  indeed  is  a  valuable 
of  life,  and  will  afford  satisfaction  in  the  close 
of  it ;  but  the  change  of  station  in  itself  will 
in  no  wise  answer  the  trouble  of  it,  and  of 
getting  into  new  forms  of  living  :    I  mean 


Butler's  Letters  217 

with  respect  to  the  peace  and  happiness  of 
one's  own  mind,  for  in  fortune,  to  be  sure 
it  will. 

I  am,  etc. 

Bristol,  Aug.  13,  1750. 

My  Good  Friend, — I  should  have  been 
mighty  glad  of  the  favour  of  a  visit  from  you, 
when  you  were  in  town.  I  thank  you  for 
your  kind  congratulations,  though  I  am  not 
without  my  doubts  and  fears,  how  far  the 
occasion  of  them  is  a  real  subject  of  congratula- 
tion to  me.  Increase  of  fortune  is  insignificant 
to  one  who  thought  he  had  enough  before  ; 
and  I  foresee  many  difficulties  in  the  station 
I  am  coming  into,  and  no  advantage  worth 
thinking  of,  except  some  greater  power  of 
being  serviceable  to  others  ;  and  whether  this 
be  an  advantage,  entirely  depends  on  the  use 
one  shall  make  of  it :  I  pray  God  it  may  be  a 
good  one.  It  would  be  a  melancholy  thing  in 
the  close  of  life,  to  have  no  reflections  to 
entertain  one's  self  with,  but  that  one  had 


2l8 


Butler's  Letters 


spent  the  revenues  of  the  bishoprick  of 
Durham  in  a  sumptuous  course  of  living,  and 
enriched  one's  friends  with  the  promotions  of 
it,  instead  of  having  really  set  one's  self  to  do 
good,  and  promote  worthy  men  ;  yet  this 
right  use  of  fortune  and  power  is  more  difficult 
than  the  generality  of  even  good  people  think, 
and  requires  both  a  guard  upon  one's  self,  and 
a  strength  of  mind,  to  withstand  solicitations, 
greater,  I  wish  I  may  not  find  it,  than  I  am 
master  of.  I  pray  God  preserve  your  health, 
and  am  always,  Dear  Sir,  Your  affectionate 
Brother  and  Servant,         Joseph  Dukelm. 

— Fitzgerala,  p.  xcix. 

To  THF  Countess  of  Hartford 

Summer  oj  1751. 

I  had  a  mind  to  see  Auckland  before  I 
wrote  to  your  Grace,  and,  as  you  take  so  kind 
a  part  in  everything  which  contributes  to  my 
satisfaction,  I  am  sure  you  will  be  pleased  to 
hear  that  the  place  is  a  very  agreeable  one. 


Butler's  Letters  219 

and  fully  answering  expectations,  except  that 
one  of  the  chief  prospects,  which  is  very- 
pretty  (the  river  Wear  with  hills,  much 
diversified,  rising  above  it),  is  too  bare  of 
wood ;  the  park  not  much  amiss  as  to  that  ; 
but  I  am  obliged  to  pale  it  anew  all  round,  the 
old  pale  being  quite  decayed.  This  will  give 
an  opportunity,  with  which  I  am  much  pleased, 
to  take  in  forty  or  fifty  acres  competently 
wooded  ;  though  with  that  enlargement  it  will 
scarce  be  sufficient  for  the  hospitality  of  the 
country.  These,  with  some  little  improve- 
ments and  very  great  repairs,  take  up  my 
leisure  time. 

Thus,  Madam,  I  seem  to  have  laid  out 
a  very  long  life  for  myself ;  yet,  in  reality, 
everything  I  see  puts  me  in  mind  of  the  short- 
ness and  uncertainty  of  it ;  the  arms  and 
inscriptions  of  my  predecessors,  what  they  did 
and  what  they  neglected,  and  (from  accidental 
circumstances)  the  very  place  itself,  and  the 
rooms  I  walk  through  and  sit  in.  And  when 
I  consider,  in  one  view,  the  many  things  of 


220 


Butler's  Letters 


the  kind  I  have  just  mentioned,  which  I  have 
upon  my  hands,  I  feel  the  burlesque  of  being 
employed  in  this  manner  at  my  time  of  life. 
But  in  another  view,  and  taking  in  all  circum- 
stances, these  things,  as  trifling  as  they  may 
appear,  no  less  than  things  of  greater  import- 
ance, seem  to  be  put  upon  me  to  do,  or  at 
least  to  begin ;  whether  I  am  to  live  to  com- 
plete any  or  all  of  them,  is  not  my  concern. 
— Fitzgerald,  Ixv. 


PRAYERS 


O  Almighty  God,  Maker  and  Preserver  of 
the  world,  Governor  and  Judge  of  all  creatures, 
whom  Thou  hast  endued  with  understanding 
so  as  to  render  them  accountable  for  their 
actions,  and  capable  of  being  judged  for  them  ; 
we  prostrate  ourselves  as  in  Thy  presence,  and 
v/orship  Thee  the  Sovereign  Lord  of  all,  in 
Whom  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being. 
The  greatness  and  perfection  of  Thy  Nature 
is  infinitely  beyond  all  possible  comprehension, 
but  in  proportion  to  our  capacities  we  would 
endeavour  to  have  a  true  conception  of  Thy 
Divine  Majesty,  and  to  live  under  a  just  sense 
and  apprehension  of  it,  that  we  may  fear  Thee 
and  hope  in  Thee,  as  we  entirely  depend  on 
Thee  :  that  we  may  love  Thee  as  supremely 
good,  and  have  our  wills  conformed  to  Thy 
will  in  all  righteousness  and  truth  ;  that  we 

221 


222  Butler's  Prayers 

may  be  thankful  to  Thee  for  everything  we 
enjoy,  as  the  gift  of  Thine  hand,  and  be 
patient  under  every  affliction  as  what  Thou 
sendest  or  permittest. 

We  desire  to  be  duly  sensible  of  what  we 
have  done  amiss,  and  we  solemnly  resolve 
before  Thee  that  for  the  time  to  come  we  will 
endeavour  to  obey  all  Thy  commands  as  they 
are  made  known  to  us. 

We  are  Thy  creatures  by  nature ;  we  give 
up  ourselves  to  be  Thy  servants  voluntarily 
and  by  choice,  and  present  ourselves,  body 
and  soul,  a  hving  sacrifice  to  Thee. 

But,  O  Almighty  God,  as  Thou  hast  mani- 
fested Thyself  to  the  world  by  Jesus  Christ; 
as  Thou  hast  given  Him  to  be  a  Propitiation 
for  the  sins  of  it,  and  the  Mediator  between 
God  and  Man ;  we  lay  hold  with  all  humility 
and  thankfulness  on  so  estimable  a  Benefit, 
and  come  unto  Thee  according  to  Thine 
appointment  in  His  Name,  and  in  the  form 
and  manner  which  He  has  taught  us. 

Our  Father,  etc. 


Butler's  Prayers 


223 


MORNING  PRAYER 

Almighty  God,  by  whose  protection  we 
were  preserved  the  night  passed,  and  are  here 
before  Thee  this  morning  in  health  and  safety  ; 
we  dedicate  this  day,  and  all  the  days  we  live 
to  Thy  service  ;  resolving  that  we  will  abstain 
from  all  evil,  that  we  will  take  heed  to  the 
thing  that  is  right  in  all  our  actions,  and 
endeavour  to  do  our  duty  In  that  state  of  life 
in  which  Thy  Providence  has  placed  us.  We 
would  remind  ourselves  that  we  are  always, 
wherever  we  may  go,  in  Thy  presence.  We 
would  be  always  in  Thy  fear ;  and  we  beg  the 
continuance  of  Thy  merciful  protection,  and 
that  Thou  wouldst  guide  and  keep  us,  in  all 
our  ways,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. — 
Gladstone,  ii.  p.  428. 


Printed  by  T.  and  A.  Constable,  Printers  to  His  Majesty 
at  the  Edinburgh  University  Press 


Date  Due 


.,  :  ■■■■'4.'; 

^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

! 

